While we try to help every foreign worker who comes to TWC2 with a problem, our volunteers are realistic enough to know that some workers are not blameless. In such a situation, we modulate the help that we extend. About a month ago, a guy -- let's call him Sham (not his real name)
By Liang Lei, based on interviews conducted in Feb 2019 Home – a personal space. A fleeting sliver of timeless refuge after a long day of work. A safe haven. Does this hold true for foreign workers who have suffered work-related injuries? According to Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM), employers are obliged to guarantee proper
Most foreign workers in the construction industry are in their twenties. Volunteer Jeremy Xiao met a older man in January 2019, who spoke to him about the weight of his family responsibility and the struggle to land a job. Yet, some experiences are all the same whether for younger workers or older ones --
At a Parliamentary sitting on 12 February 2019, Nominated member of Parliament Anthea Ong asked the Minister for Manpower this question: What was the value of unpaid salaries in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively, according to the orders made by the Employment Claims Tribunal on employers to pay owed salaries. Mrs Josephine Teo, Manpower
By intern Ada Cheong The past few weeks have frustrated me in my search for an elusive piece of paper in Singapore. Nobody seems to have a physical copy of it. And much like a mythical creature, it evades photography. Does it even exist? If seeing is believing, I must admit: I have not
In January 2019, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) sought public feedback on some proposed amendments to the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA). As TWC2 sees over a thousand cases a year of work injury among foreign workers, this matter is germane to our work. MOM's proposals centre chiefly around these themes: 1. Medical leave
By Grace Chua, based on an interview in August 2018 It has been three months since Rahman Mostafizur filed a salary claim with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). Having started work in March 2017, he was dismayed to note that his salary was unilaterally reduced throughout the fourteen months of employment. Before joining Kah Development
By Debbie Fordyce The first graph (below) suggests that a disproportionate number of Indian and Bangladeshi migrant workers lodge injury claims within the first six months of starting a job. Moreover, TWC2's observation is that many of these injuries are minor and result in little compensation or will heal completely, thus meriting no disability compensation
By Darrell Foo, based on an interview in November 2018 At TWC2's Cuff Road Project where free meals are distributed to destitute foreign workers, almost all the men's "makan cards" (meal eligibility cards issued by TWC2) state "injury" or "not paid salary" as their problems. My guess is that 99% of them have one of
We first featured Raju in the story To encash two cheques, Raju had to jump through hoops, which was about his last three days before going home. Prior to that, he was having difficulty getting due settlement of his injury compensation claim and this story below is about an incident during that period. -- By
