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Work five months, fight salary case ten months
By Cheryl Lim, based on an interview in May 2018 With his jaw tightly clenched throughout our entire one-hour conversation, 41-year-old construction worker Rahman Habibur, repeatedly asks me, “Can you get back my money? You can help?” “We will try our best,” I reply. With his hand on the official
Sorowar goes home with new $35,000 ‘helmet’
Before going home on 18 July 2018, Paik Sorowar went around to thank every volunteer and staff member of TWC2 who had helped him in any way big or small. He may see Transient Workers Count Too as the ones who gave him a brand new skull implant, but it's
Where the silver lining ends: Safiar’s hopes of avoiding further indebtedness thwarted by bureaucratic opacity
By Alston Ng based on an interview in June 2018 According to a Bloomberg article (footnote 1) dated to Jan 2017, Singaporeans face the shortest unemployment period in the world, spending a median duration of merely two months before finding new jobs. No doubt, such a short transition period indicates
Re attempts at salary reduction, MOM ties itself in knots
Based on details collected from casework in May and June 2018 When Rahman Safiar went to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to get his Work Permit processed, he was in for a shock. It was not even two weeks after arriving in Singapore for a new job with a promised
Unreported work injuries: more than a matter of statistics
By Liang Lei, based on interviews in June 2018 It is common knowledge that timely diagnosis and treatment of injuries go a long way in minimizing pain and speeding up recovery. In Singapore, the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA) seeks to enable that, by allowing employees injured at work to
False hope, hesitant trust and bureaucratic complexities
By Liang Lei, based on an interview in May 2018 Received unexpectedly dismal scores for an assessment? Appeal. Although this “survival tactic” for examinations seems to transcend cultures, the consequences can vary drastically from one situation to another. In the case of a foreign worker’s Permanent Incapacity Compensation score, a
Surgery not covered by insurance, says boss. Go back to India instead
By Nicholas Lee based on an interview in May 2018 The crowd at TWC2's food programme grows as the hour for the breaking of the Ramadan fast approaches. Among the non-Muslims is Paranthaman Arulvendan, registering himself with TWC2 for the first time. But he's not new to Singapore. Arul has
More frauds committed using ministry letterhead
In October 2017, we carried a story Fraud committed using ministry letterhead [link] about how a worker was misled about the salary he would be getting before he signed on for a job in Singapore. While, as we explained in that article, we did not know who exactly was the culprit,
Life and happiness for some, downward spiral for Alam
By Sun Hanchen, based on an interview in March 2018 Money is not important, they say. Chase your own happiness, they say. Live for yourself, for life is meant to be enjoyed. As a middle class, soon-to-be-university educated, Chinese (read: majority) person, I often hear this advice from my more
MOM accuses us of “inaccurate or false information” — here’s our response
This is TWC2's response to a statement by the Ministry of Manpower over "inaccurate or false information" in our recent stories. The statement was dated 6 July 2018 and carried on the government's "Factually" website. From time to time, differences will occur between what TWC2 records workers to be saying in