Articles

18 02, 2014

Alam’s disappearing accident

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:33:36+08:00February 18th, 2014|Articles, Stories|

By Benjamin Wong The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) website states that for a worker to claim under the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA), "the employee only needs to prove that he was injured in a work accident ..." (emphasis added by TWC2). In reality, many workers have difficulty even meeting this supposedly simple condition, because

15 02, 2014

Nazim’s employer didn’t report accident to ministry for ten months

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:33:36+08:00February 15th, 2014|Articles, Stories|

By Keith W Nazim Chowdhury shows me a three-page document he printed out. It's the formal accident report that his employer provided to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). The incident was described in the document thus: That he "... with a co-worker was tasked to remove a beam at the location. While handling the beam,

14 02, 2014

Injured workers inside and outside WICA: processes, problems and solutions

webmaster2019-08-30T16:33:36+08:00February 14th, 2014|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, News, Our Stand|

This downloadable document is a consolidation of the various recommendations that Transient Workers Count Too has made to the Ministry of Manpower in the last few months and years, with respect to injured workers. Injured worker issues are quite distinct from the salary non-payment issues. For the latter, the recommendations are more straightforward: detailed itemised

13 02, 2014

Woolim, part 2: case vanishes

alex2019-08-30T16:33:36+08:00February 13th, 2014|Articles, Stories|

Continued from Woolim, part 1: How low can a salary get? Early January 2014, Iqbal comes to the office with a group of his co-workers telling us that three of the fifteen men have accepted a settlement offer from the employer Woolim, wherein each of them would receive $2,000. This, says Iqbal, is a far

12 02, 2014

Naidu shared a truck with machinery, his hand paid the price

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:33:36+08:00February 12th, 2014|Articles, Stories|

By Joyce Wong 28 June 2013. Morning. Although he had reported to work, Ravada Gouru Naidu felt a headache coming on, and his supervisor allowed him to go back to the dormitory to rest. He could get a ride back on the company lorry, but since the cab was fully occupied by two other workers

9 02, 2014

Migrant workers at writers’ fortnight at United World College

GuestContributor2019-08-30T16:33:37+08:00February 9th, 2014|Articles, Happenings|

By Pat Meyer and Christine Pelly, photos by Low Yim Kuan Over the course of two days in January, twenty migrant workers from Bangladesh and India talked about their lives with just over 200 students from over 40 different countries. The students were 14- and 15-year-olds from an international school in Singapore, United World College

6 02, 2014

Five years on, Junnuri still waiting for injury pay-out

alex2019-08-30T16:33:37+08:00February 6th, 2014|Articles, Stories|

Junnuri Subrahmanyam's flight was booked for the evening. He wanted a day off on his last day in Singapore so he could go downtown to buy gifts for this family. He had been working four years with Sin Hong Thai Engineering and was looking forward to going home. But instead of being on a plane

3 02, 2014

Law students’ reflections 4: Crossing a road

GuestContributor2019-08-30T16:33:37+08:00February 3rd, 2014|Articles, Stories|

By Charmaine Yap On the very first day of our 3-week internship at TWC2, Alex told us most emphatically that we would need to “step out of our middle class mindset and assumptions”. That thought particularly stuck with me. Thinking back now, I doubt I had really understood then what he had meant by that,

1 02, 2014

Workplace injuries and migrant workers

webmaster2019-08-30T16:33:37+08:00February 1st, 2014|Articles, Facts, research, analysis|

By John Gee The annual report for 2012 of the Occupational Safety and Health Division (link to Part 1, Part 2), released in March 2013, ("OSHD Report") showed that the number of workplace deaths had fallen to 56, its lowest level in nine years. However, the total number of injuries had risen over ten per

29 01, 2014

Esan comes back to a new job

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:33:37+08:00January 29th, 2014|Articles, Stories|

By Keith W He waves to me while I am standing in the ATM line. He looks familiar but I can't place him. Guessing that I am having some difficulty remembering him, he approaches me to re-introduce himself. "You not remember me? My name Esan*," he says. "Last time I have injury problem, and I