Articles

11 10, 2013

Over a year, the difference between $18 and $25 adds up to a lot of money

alex2019-08-30T16:34:17+08:00October 11th, 2013|Articles, News Flash, Stories|

"You see my IPA," says Shipon as he leaves through a whole sheath of papers. "It say here my salary one month $650." The 'IPA' is the In-principle approval for a work permit and contains the terms of employment that the employer declares to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) at the time of applying for

9 10, 2013

65 percent of injured and salary-claim workers threatened with premature repatriation

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:17+08:00October 9th, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, Happenings|

For both groups -- those regularly working and those with injury and salary claims-- the threat of premature repatriation creates a lot of stress. It is the most important stress factor among working workers, and the second-most important, after being injured, among injured and salary-claim workers. Having uncleared debts incurred in agents fees also hung

7 10, 2013

Shoriful and Afroza marry by phone

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:17+08:00October 7th, 2013|Articles, Stories|

Webmaster: Sometimes we need to be reminded that migrant workers may come from very different cultures. Shoriful's story about getting married may sound very strange, but is quite typical for men from Bangladesh. Money concerns also feature prominently, heightened by expectations that workers ought to be remitting large amounts of money when in truth, some

6 10, 2013

Support TWC2 through our Lunch with Heart, 15 December 2013

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:17+08:00October 6th, 2013|Articles, Happenings|

Update, 29 November 2013: TWC2 wishes to thank donors for buying enough tickets to fill the 140-capacity venue. Of these, 50 tickets (already sold and allocated) will be used by the donors themselves and the remaining 90 are sponsored tickets for workers to enjoy the lunch. In fact another 54 sponsored tickets have been sold

3 10, 2013

Kabir refuses wrongly-calculated salary for nine months, now no job at all

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:34:17+08:00October 3rd, 2013|Articles, Stories|

By Lisa Li Before coming to Singapore, Kabir was promised that the job would pay $32 a day. But "when I start work , I no get 32 dollars, they pay only 28 dollars," he tells Transient Workers Count Too. "We hear of such problems quite frequently," says TWC2 vice-president Alex Au. "Some employers take advantage

30 09, 2013

Crime victim detained for months

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:34:17+08:00September 30th, 2013|Articles, Stories|

By Keith W Yes, you read the headline right. The victim was detained -- so to speak. Muthunayagam Saju has been told by the police that he is not allowed to go home to India. He must remain in Singapore because they may need him in order to prosecute the robber. Saju, 36, feels trapped

29 09, 2013

To combat low spirits, TWC2 takes workers to fly kites high

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:17+08:00September 29th, 2013|Articles, Happenings|

It was a bright, breezy day with blue skies. Just perfect for kite-flying. Discover Singapore brought twenty-one workers on 31 August 2013 to the Promontory at Marina Bay, taking advantage of the advertised Kite-Flying Festival. TWC2 volunteers Irene, Emily, Steven and Terence organised and led the group, with friends Kee Wee and Karan joining in. Discover

27 09, 2013

Gulam shoulders cost of hospital’s mix-up

alex2019-08-30T16:34:18+08:00September 27th, 2013|Articles, Stories|

Gulam Mustafa Zakir Hossain fears his work injury compensation claim may have been totally screwed up. He injured his right shoulder, but the medical report from West Point Hospital where he was initially treated mentions the left shoulder. "My left side no problem," he says. It has never been injured. It may have been just

24 09, 2013

Study on injured workers’ housing conditions reveals widespread neglect of employers’ responsibilities

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:18+08:00September 24th, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis|

Only 28 percent of injured workers have been offered accommodation by their employer (sometimes, MOM) post-injury. This despite the fact that the law requires employers to provide decent housing while they are in Singapore. Even so, these 28 percent were not in that offered accommodation; they fled for fear of forced repatriation and other pressing

22 09, 2013

Training centres in Bangladesh have become money-minting machines

alex2019-08-30T16:34:18+08:00September 22nd, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis|

It started as a way to ensure that migrant workers coming to Singapore had some basic skills, but the raison d'etre has since become something else: to extract as much money as possible from the poor. "It" is the tangled business of providing training, testing and recruitment in Bangladesh. The key to its metamorphosis is