Articles > Stories
Mithun’s first 20 minutes with TWC2
By Zhan Nanxin, from an evening in March 2018 Like many other first timers, Sheikh Mohammad Mithun comes to Transient Workers Count Too's Dayspace in Little India unsure of what to expect, hoping for advice and help. What catches our eye is the large bag of medication in his left
Rashadul goes home with only pocket change
Based on an interview in April 2018 Despite giving us a broad smile, Rashadul's life has changed for the worse. For example, his broken knee means he will never be able to squat again. The best he can do now is to kneel on his one good knee, which at
When court orders are worthless: the Zach Engineering case
Longform by Gautam Joseph with contribution by Choo Wai Hong Timeline Dec 2014 Two workers at Zach Engineering summarily dismissed after employer has disagreement with Ministry of Manpower (MOM). Mar – Jun 2015 Two workers rehired by Zach Engineering, three other Bangladeshi workers join. Oct 2015 Fifteen workers paid only
Jaynal lost his case at ECT; was the tribunal’s decision sound?
On 19 October 2017, Abedin Md Jaynal spent virtually the whole day in the Employment Claims Tribunal (ECT) arguing his case. By the close of the day, it was over, and he had lost. The magistrate dismissed his salary claim. Jaynal told TWC2 that the magistrate was actually sympathetic to
48 Nihal workers left high and dry, and MOM’s ‘softly, softly’ role
None of the workers has gotten any real satisfaction. Nada. Worse yet, it was hardly an unusual case; it's becoming all too common for migrant workers to be left high and dry after their employers fail to pay the agreed salaries and the Ministry of Manpower's dispute resolution system either
Sarkar Robel finds his salary in a time warp
The main part of this story is based on an interview in November 2017, when the outcome was hard to predict. The postscript was written in April 2018 after the case had concluded. The narrative hinges on dates. As you read it, pay close attention to the dates. On Thursday,
“Excuse me, can we talk to you a little bit?”
Meet Lovelu (L) and Lemon (R), two of the many migrant workers who came to TWC2 in April after not having been paid the salaries. Photographs by Nguyen Phi Yen, from an evening in April 2018 Every weekday evening, volunteers with Transient Workers Count Too are there on
Bumpy ride for Alaguraja as employer goes doctor-shopping
By Alston Ng, based on an interview in March 2018 It has been 18 years since Ganapathi Alaguraja first arrived in Singapore as a foreign worker, but his impeccable record of accident-free workdays came to an end when a spinning drill-bit crushed a finger on 1 March. Despite the years
From too much noise to an uneasy silence
By Sun Hanchen, based on an interview in January 2018 I wrote about Rajan (not his real name) in an earlier story "Worker asks for reimbursement of medical bills, sets off chain of events". In this story, I will recount his work history, to give readers a glimpse into a foreign
The cook and the consumer
By Aaron Chua, based on interviews conducted in March 2018 At Transient Workers Count Too, we are mostly dealing with cases of salary and injury problems, but what do the day-to-day affairs of an average migrant worker look like? We got a glimpse of how their meals were managed when