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Sajalal and his shape-changing salary
What was Sajalal's salary? He couldn't be sure. We ask him to give us a history and it shines a light on some widespread employer practices.
Ferdous has had enough, wants to go home
Ferdous feels overwhelmed by problems: injury, unpaid salary, unrecovered recruitment fees, borrowing money to pay for treatment, delays due to Covid-19....
Only nine company directors convicted in 2019 for not paying salaries
Despite the Employment Claims Tribunal finding hundreds of employers liable for salary non-ayment, only a handful of compay directors are convicted.
Invisible occupations: hotel housekeeping
Singapore's hotel industry is highly reliant on foreign workers too, though they're less visible than construction workers. Barathi gives us a little insight before he goes home.
Moving mountains to remove 3cm of metal wire
Rana needed a small medical procedure to remove a wire implant that has outlived its usefulness. Bureaucracy and faulty government policy stood in the way.
“I don’t understand, I don’t know press one or two”
In Singapore, we rush to digitise many things, but forget that in the process, groups of already-disadvantaged people get left further behind.
Sheikh Hasan’s first 24 hours with TWC2
Hasan paid over $15,000 for his first job in Singapore, which didn't materialise. After 4 months in limbo, he approached us. A case study of the social work we do.
From the murkiness, a señora emerges
How did Shahabuddin end up with a lawyer over his injury case when parties are not in dispute? A simple question leads to a bigger exploration.
$9,000 to help cousin get a job that pays $399 per month
Right before our noses, illegal job agents operate with impunity in Singapore itself, raking in loads of money. Employers offering jobs through these recruiters don't smell too clean either.
Kader’s girlfriend, wife and baby
Throughout the Covid-19 lockdown, Kader was almost continuously on the phone. Here's a glimpse of a migrant worker's use of technology.