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Worker claims breathing difficulties from dusty work environment, MOM says illness not work-related
By YC Loh Picture your workplace being five to seven metres underground and just a few metres wide, inside a one-and-a-half kilometre long drain under a road. The only source of ventilation is via mechanical means which prove inadequate. The air you breathe is saturated with dust particles, which is so
Response to complaint about our ‘demonise’ article
Transient Workers Count Too received a complaint about a post on this website about Singapore mums using blogs to vent about their maids. The blogger, Expat Bostonians, has written a rebuttal here. Her point was that she never intended to demonise domestic helpers and that it was unfair to her
Minimum wage will reduce temptation of illegal work
We usually write about the situations that bring workers to Transient Workers Count Too's Cuff Road Food Programme — injury, salary dispute, etc — but seldom about what they do to sustain themselves once their work permits are cancelled and they're put on special passes. A condition of the special
Video: a day in Sudha’s life
The above video was created by a group of students from the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University. Introducing themselves to TWC2 at the start of their project and seeking our endorsement, they wrote: "We have chosen to do our project on construction worker and
Why are Singapore mums demonising maids online?
All it takes is one bad experience and an internet connection to start venting your spleen against a maid. Or eight in the case of one blogger. ‘Employing a Maid in Singapore’ was conceived to offer support to "employers who have suffered at the hands of bad maids". It is
Three cases — as different as night, day and the twilight zone
With additional reporting by Lee Kah Ghim (Nur E Alam) and Tan Ruoqi (Nur Mohammad) Some stories we hear from workers come in fragments and it is hard to fully understand what's going on with their cases. The stories are also so divergent that one wonders if there are consistent
Give a kickback or get a kick
Soon after returning to his quarters after work on the evening of 23 February 2013, Shoriful's supervisor Ujjal showed up with a fellow worker Jakir in tow. With an aggressive tone of voice, Ujjal confronted Shoriful. "He say to me," reports Shoriful, "'Who your father in Singapore? He in MOM?
Unpaid, injured gardener says MOM “hopeless”
By YC Loh I winced as the young man showed me his mangled left forefinger -- an injury that may cause him and his family much financial hardship in the future. Sooriyamoorthy Senthilkumar arrived in Singapore from Tamil Nadu on 30 May 2012 to work as a gardener. Over the
Salary complaint resolved unusually quickly
By Davina Tham When eighteen workers demanded the four months' salaries that were owed to them, their boss told them that they would only receive the money if they first signed a “condition paper”, says Mohammed Anisuzzaman (striped shirt). "But never show paper," he adds, indicating that they were upset to
A year and a half since the accident, Mahadi still stuck in Singapore
Volunteer Christine Pelly flipped Mahadi's dinner card over and noticed that the date of accident recorded on it was more than one year ago. She directed the young man to your writer, who this evening was interested in the stories of those with prolonged cases. Visibly, there was no obvious