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Gripped by two repatriation agents, Monjor is taken to airport
By Joyce Wong Monjor's boss wanted him to accept a lower pay than previously agreed. He refused. Then repatriation agents came. Last month, testifying before the Committee of Inquiry looking into the Little India riots, Kevin Teoh of MOM's Foreign Manpower Management Division, said, as reported in Today newspaper: Asked
Nose healed, Rana ready to go back to work, but boss won’t have him
By Woo Haoqi Instead of providing for his family, Rana Md Masud depends on his uncle for financial support. This uncle is also working in Singapore, but it doesn't change the fact that Rana is a burden to his family. Says Alex Au, TWC2 Vice president, “Rana represents one of
230 retail employees face jail
By Lucas Ho Selvam (not his real name) rests his head, heavy with worry, in his hand. "I very worry," he says. "So many nights I cannot sleep." He knows about a recent the report in the Straits Times: "22 Indian nationals charged for false declaration of salaries," ran the
Who prospers in this salary saga?
Our recent article about workers from Woolim Plant Engineering & Construction Company explained how the Bangladeshi employees were underpaid for over a year before deciding to raise the issue, and how Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) assisted them in calculating their salaries and lodging a complaint with the Ministry of
In the hours following an accident, the mischief starts
By Keith W Hossain Jabed's story is one of long frustration. His accident happened more than one year ago, but his medical treatment has been suspended because his employer wouldn't pay, and now he is likely to be sent home without being properly cured. "I cannot turn head very much,"
Dentists treat foot injuries, don’t they?
By Mayank Tripathi “Why should I go to a dentist for a broken foot?" exclaims a visibly weary Md Sultan Khan, when he begins telling me his story. About a year ago, Sultan, an employee of Sino Marine & Engineering, incurred an injury while at his workplace in Keppel shipyard.
Through six years working here, Suman’s salary stayed much the same
Most times, when TWC2 volunteers interview workers, the conversation tends to focus on the immediate problem he or she faces, be it an injury needing proper medical attention, unpaid salaries, or a job scam. Suman Barman has an injury too, to his right thumb, but he was also a good
Owed $18,000 by boss, Arul told he should go home without collecting it
By Jacintha Gopal Narayanasamy Arulmurugan (Arul) has in hand a formal order issued by a Labour Court ordering his employer to pay him $18,276.42 in owed salary. But he is facing the stark possibility that he’d soon be told by the Ministry of Manpower to buy his own ticket and
Lawyer tells injured worker he can go home without waiting for WICA process to conclude
By Sonia Pillai Quite early in the interview, Palani Srinivasan, 43, mentions that his lawyer has told him to go home after his third operation. “Let me do collection for you,” was what (according to Srinivasan) his lawyer said. TWC2 vice-president Alex Au, who is sitting beside me, thinks it
Scammed worker given only six months to recover his $4,500 loss
By Fuxiong Torikul's hoped-for second job in Singapore never materialised. Instead, he's $4,500 in the red, having paid this total sum to an 'agent' and the boss. Getting it back is going to be difficult. He borrowed this amount from his father-in-law, who mortgaged his small plot of farmland to