All Articles
Contractor folds, 220 workers likely to lose out on salaries
By Eitan After a year of volunteering, I can now spot a new guy at our soup kitchen with little difficulty. Unlike the 'regulars' who know the drill -- present a meal card, sign into the registration book, get a token -- and who also engage in some banter with
Blue Diamond director gets the blues: why can’t service sector staff come from India?
Singapore brings in hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from India and Bangladesh for the construction and marine industries. We also have large numbers of technical and professional immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. They need to eat. They prefer to eat at restaurants that serve their kind of food. To
A visit to a skills training centre in Bangladesh
A visit to the Asea Trading International Singapore Skills Centre in Tangail District of Bangladesh began with a conversation with the managing director Mr. Md Anisur Rahman. He proudly boasted that his centre hosts about 100 men at a time offering training in such skills as welding, electrical wiring, waterproofing,
MOM wants worker to pay back $21,000
The process of work injury compensation goes like this: When a course of treatment is completed, the injured worker is assessed by doctors for any residual permanent incapacity. If there is, an interim Notice of Assessment (NOA) is sent to the worker, the employer and the insurance company that issued
Which caused Rashed more suffering: the accident or the lawyer?
TWC2 volunteer Meera Rajah assisted a worker as he struggled to sort out his injury case after having things messed up by a law firm. This is Meera's detailed account of how the mess came about and what she had to do to help him. It shines a spotlight into
With injured knee, Uzzal crawls under barbed wire to escape company ‘jail’
By Seema Punwani Uzzal's world stopped on 28 Oct 2013. It was the day he found himself locked in a room, alone, injured and his documents taken away from him. What could he, a foreign worker from Bangladesh, have possibly done to warrant this kind of inhumane treatment? He had
Condition for getting treatment? Don’t tell doctor it was a work accident
By Stéphanie Psarski It is sad, how some humans can treat other humans. On 26 July 2014, construction worker Hossan slipped on oil and landed heavily on his back. The company doctor gave him Panadol and two days' medical leave. But at the end of the two days, the pain
What plagues the migrant worker
This paper by Meera Rajah, a young volunteer helping out with case documentation and follow-up, provides a good summary of the issues that migrant workers commonly face. It is however, not just a descriptive summary, but delves into the reasons why things are as they are, putting the finger on
Bhuiyan and friends defeated
This is a four-part story about four workers whose employer's behaviour appears to have crossed a few red lines relating to trafficking in persons. Five months after Monir Bhuiyan and three others lodged their salary complaints against their employer J S Metal Pte Ltd, the company was still in business,
Bhuiyan and friends defeated, part 2
Continued from Part 1. This second part of the JS Metal saga shows up defects in the Ministry of Manpower's processes. From the many cases that TWC2 has seen, it appears that these defects spring mainly from the heroic assumption that when a case of salary non-payment or underpayment arises,