The EFMA governs the employment of foreign personnel in Singapore. The great majority of non-Singaporean employees are low-salaried migrant workers. TWC2 brought together a legal team to work on proposals for the amendment of EFMA and the regulations issued under it – specifically, the different types of work pass. TWC2 is grateful to those who
Until February this year Anis worked inside a large coal tanker; he would spend around 10 hours in its guts with five men for company, a power hose and the toxic fumes of anti-corrosive paint with which they coated the walls. Anis’ story isn’t unusual. As a plumber by trade, he was ecstatic to be
Falling from heights has claimed the life of an eighth domestic worker this year. An Indonesian maid fell to her death from the ninth floor of a Woodlands flat on Thursday (26 April 2012) at about 6:20 pm, reported the Straits Times (28 April 2012, Yet another maid falls to her death, by Cherie Thio),
Minister of state for community development, youth and sports, Halimah Yacob, called on employers not to insist that domestic workers clean the outside of windows. She was responding to reporters' questions about the seven maids who had fallen to their deaths so far this year while cleaning windows or hanging out the laundry. Her words
The new Settling-in-Programme (SIP) for first-time domestic workers will kick in from May 1, reported the Straits Times on April 14, 2012. The compulsory programme replaces a controversial entry test which many first-time maids find hard to pass because of their weak command of the English language. The workers must attend the course before their work
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
