By Elizabeth Zhou Cleanly shaven, he is dressed in a tight-fitting dark blue T-shirt that betrays a physique built by hard labour. A pair of trendy earphones is slung around his neck. It is my first time at Transient Workers Count Too's free meals point, known as The Cuff Road Project. I am unsure how
By Hui Zhen Manikandan was instructed to meet “boss” one day, after six days' absence from work, and told he would be fined $180 ($30 a day) for not being on the job. “Boss say, 'Don’t give story',” he exclaimed. He was then gripped by his shirt and told he'd be sent back to India.
TWC2 calls for practices of labour trafficking suffered by low wage migrant workers in all sectors of employment and foreign fishermen who dock in Singapore or on transit in the country to be addressed in the “Prevention of Human Trafficking Bill”. In a 17-page document submitted via email on 18 April 2014 to the address
It is normal procedure for the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to require employers to hand over foreign workers' passports when employees have made salary complaints. "Today, MOM officer call two times to him (the boss)," Polash tells TWC2. "MOM officer give him up to 2pm to bring passports." But it was well after 2pm before
By Fuxiong Some employers try to take advantage of a foreign worker's weak English. They present stacks of papers for the worker to sign, papers that he can't understand. All sorts of pressures are then applied on the worker to make him sign them, but doing so may prejudice his rights. Fortunately, Sohag Md Lowsar
The report Training centres in Bangladesh have become money-minting machines (published September 2013) was based on research done in Dhaka. Drawing from anecdotal information, we asserted in the paper that "Most workers report that their Singapore jobs are unrelated to the skills they trained for." This anecdotal information was from workers whom Transient Workers Count Too
Most men from Bangladesh dress quite conservatively. Compared to his compatriots, Sohel, standing at our front door, flashed a lot of skin. Your writer remarked to himself: This guy is halfway to becoming Singaporean. When Sohel opened his mouth, more proof flowed. He was fluent in Singlish. It turned out that for the better part of
Dinner time at the Cuff Road Project is usually hectic. Too many laid-off workers crowd into a tiny diner not just to get their meals, but to seek a consultation, get a document explained to them, or apply for an EZ-Link card. They're also there to catch up with friends, or tell us about someone
"They didn't ask any questions," said Nor Karno, "unless the managers weren't in the room. Then the questions came." The Transient Workers Count Too social worker was describing his experience giving three talks at Bright Vision Hospital in March 2014. It was a sign of enlightened management practice that the hospital management invited TWC2 to
By Pan Chuen Faced with an impossible situation filled with uncertainty, what would you do? Md Jamal Abdul Aziz Maji, 29, is a Bangladeshi worker who worked in Singapore for thirteen months before his patience over unpaid overtime ran out. Unhappy about an employee asserting his right to be paid, Jamal's boss cancelled his work
