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Your condition is serious, you must go to hospital, says polyclinic. “I no money,” says Kamal
By Stéphanie Psarski This testimony is a very good and heart warming example of how, to workers, Transient Workers Count Too makes a difference even in the tiniest thing. Injured on his back in July 2012, Kamal Mostafa has been waiting in Singapore for his case to be settled by
Genius Engineering, part 2: Latif’s opinion of Singapore takes a dive
By Isabel Chew “Before I always think Singaporean very good but today I see I cannot take it lah. Because salary don’t give.” As I wrap up my interview with Latif, the morose Bangladeshi worker shares with me his feelings about the seemingly hopeless situation. He has not been paid
Genius Engineering, part 1: the first group comes to TWC2
A large group of workers from Genius Engineering approached TWC2 for help over salary non-payment. Volunteer Meera Rajah meets two of them. By Meera Rajah “Next week… next week… wait”, Rafiqul and Hossain are now – unfortunately – accustomed to this unvarying refrain. It has been three months and four
After an eight-month slog through the Labour Court, Durai wins back his overtime pay
Veluchamy Duraisamy is a happy worker. On or around 4 August 2014, he (more or less) won his case at the Labour Court. He is extremely grateful to TWC2. It might have turned out very differently without us. Durai had to go to the Labour Court eight times to get
Zahir mistakenly happy to have received his ‘MC money’
By Lucas Ho Just as Zahir is getting to the part about MC money halfway through the interview, TWC2 vice-president Alex Au walks by. He overhears Zahir mention a few numbers -- numbers which don't quite make sense to me, but whose significance Alex grasps straight away. In case we
Shahadat’s safety sacrificed at the altar of profit
Shahadatsmiles broadly when he's in good company with TWC2 By Meera Rajah Shahadat Hosain, like many other migrant workers from Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Thailand and the Philippines, took a job with a subcontractor of Keppel Shipyard in hope of creating a better life. He was prepared to put
In three months: Three scams and one hantam
With additional reporting by Mohd Ridhwan Saju kept reminding his boss for the rest of his May 2014 salary. He had received only $300 compared to something over $1,000 he considered was rightly due. He had put in a lot of overtime work in May. "Ah Soon, he say later,
They’re going on holiday together
By Keith Wong I asked four friends when we were having a Friday night out whether they'd prefer to use a moving company that employed Bangladeshi workers or one that employed ex-convicts. There was no contest. All made it exceedingly clear they would choose the company that had Bangladeshi workers.
Saudi versus Singapore: Different spaces, different lives
By Danielle Hong Mohammed Gafur is here at the TWC2 office with a friend to deal with his injury compensation. He has kept all his bills and time cards, a practice of storing evidence learnt in the eleven years he has been living in Singapore. Though calm and rational, he
After eight loyal years, fired when he fell ill, part 2
With additional reporting by Debbie Fordyce Part 1 described how Mollah Jahangir lost his job as soon as he asked his employer to pay for medical treatment. This, even though he had loyally worked for the company for eight years. And even though he continued working for five months since