Speaking to reporters, the secretary-general of the Natioanl Trades Union Congress (NTUC), Lim Swee Say, said "'Today, our challenge is that we are too foreign worker-centric." This was reported in the Straits Times on April 14, 2012. Lim, who is also a minister without portfolio, added, "I, as secretary-general, feel that we need to get
Last November, Minister of State for Manpower Tan Chuan-jin involved himself personally in a raid conducted against substandard accommodation for foreign workers. In a Facebook post, the minister described the conditions he saw as “abysmal.” I visited Mohamed’s and Bilal's house before they were sent home to Bangladesh this week – they told me they were crammed there with
We at Transient Workers Count Too spend a lot of time talking and counseling men who are desperate to stay and work in Singapore, trying to find out how their cases are progressing and what can be done to help them come to terms with an often brutal bureaucracy. Regular readers will know how painful this
Mohd Khamsya, one of Transient Workers Count Too's volunteers at our Cuff Road Project, was featured in Berita Harian on Monday, April 2, 2012. The Malay-language newspaper however, omitted mention of Sya's involvement with TWC2, though he had told the reporter about it. Below is an English translation of the news feature, translated for TWC2
The subject of paying for medical treatment needed by foreign workers came up in a letter by a Jeffrey Law published by the Straits Times in its online edition on March 14, 2012. Below it is the reply by the Ministry of Manpower, followed by a letter by Debbie Fordyce, a member of TWC2's executive
The term 'placement fees' will, after May 1, 2012, only include the cost of medical check-ups, document processing and charges by Indonesian training centres, unlike currently where the term includes fees by recruitment agencies and other middlemen. This change will mean lowering placement fees from about $3,000 currently to about $1,600 for first-time maids and
Asad is the man above. The picture on the left was taken in August 2011 before he left Singapore; even then he was slim, around 60 kg. The picture on the right was taken in March 2012, seven months later. He had lost 13 kg and looked ten years older. While in Singapore, he was
The New Paper published a laudable background feature on domestic maids from the Philippines and Indonesia on Monday, March 26, 2012. In the three-page spread by lead writer Amanda Phua, the story described their pre-Singapore lives back in their villages where electricity is a luxury and modern household appliances unknown. It shows how hard the
A group from Paya Lebar Methodist Church came by to our soup kitchen at lunch on Saturday, March 24, 2012, to give out goodie bags stuffed full of useful things to the workers we serve. Things like soap, toothpaste and shavers may look like unglamourous and utilitarian items, but for workers left totally broke, they
The Ministry of Manpower’s extension of the maximum period of employment of work permit holders from six to ten years is a move in the right direction (See http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/Pages/PressReleasesDetail.aspx?listid=415). Like the ministry, Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) believes that improving the skill levels and productivity of foreign workers should be a key aim. This move,
