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Having a rough ride
By Suresh A ride sitting at the back of a truck in May this year was all it took to change the fate of Kashem Abul for worse. He's been working in Singapore for a total of 13 years, albeit for different companies. Only three months into his job with
A punch thrown, bystanders avoid getting involved
By Lee Kah Ghim If you witnessed a man being punched in the eye by another, would you render assistance? What if the victim were a foreign worker, someone who belonged to a category of individuals Singaporeans so frequently look down upon; would you still help? It was an apparent
Letter in Straits Times: Foreign workers’ medical dilemma
A letter by TWC2 exco member Debbie Fordyce was published in the Straits Times 25 October 2012. She highlights the quite common problem of the government creating a bias against workers in favour of employers. Straits Times, 25 October 2012, Print Forum Foreign workers' medical dilemma Foreign workers often find
Photographer shoots workers as superheroes
Photographer Sam Chin will be showing works from his project “SuperHeroes” in a group exhibition at the National Museum on Stamford Road from 20 October to 27 December 2012. This exhibition is part of the Objectifs 10 years Shooting Home Anniversary. Sam explains: "SuperHeroes is an attempt to photograph various
Industrial accidents make tenement landlords rich
By Benjamin Wong Where do these out-of-job workers stay? This question is often asked. Hardly any of them are housed by their ex-employers, though in theory the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) expects employers to continue providing "upkeep and maintenance" until the worker is repatriated. But rare is the case when
Mind the gap: no system in place to help workers needing costly medical care
Just this year alone, three workers came to the attention of Transient Workers Count Too with holes in their skulls resulting from workplace accidents (see story here). They needed cranioplasties -- reconstructing the missing part of the skull with synthetic material -- but who would pay for the operation? Their
Three cranioplasties
This year alone, Transient Workers Count Too came across three workers who had sustained head injuries. In dealing with the emergency, a part of their skulls had to be removed. With only soft skin covering the unprotected part of the brain, they were left exposed to future injuries. These three
Cash flow plan shredded by hungry ghosts
Shah Ali didn't have much choice when his one-year work permit came to an end. Having paid an employment agent about S$4,400 to get this job for him a year ago, he had still not recovered the investment. If he didn't get his work permit renewed and continued in the
Mopping is for diploma holders
Soman Murugappan worked hard for his diploma in electrical and electronics engineering, specialising in instrumentation and control. If he's lucky, he'll be getting a job as a cleaner. The 26-year-old from Tamil Nadu, India, came to Singapore in early April 2012. He had been given a job with an airconditioning
Manpower minister provides 5-year data for foreign workforce numbers
Acting Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan-jin penned a blogpost in the Manpower blog in which he sought to explain to the Singapore public the recent trends in foreign workforce numbers. He said that many businesses have told him that his ministry, by tightening work passes for foreigners, was "unreasonably making