In the middle of March 2018, TWC2 got a call from a Sikh temple. They were sheltering a young woman who had come to them for help. We asked that she be sent to our office. Khushpreet (not her real name) was a first-time domestic worker, who arrived in Singapore just three weeks earlier in
The typical worker who is with TWC2's Cuff Road Project has waited nearly six months since his workplace accident. Yet he is still some distance from the conclusion of his Work Injury Compensation (Wica) claim. Typically, this worker is still in the first of four phases: getting medical treatment or simply waiting for an assessment
By Sun Hanchen, based on an interview in November 2017 When most of us apply for a job, we have expectations that the job scope will be related to our field of education or training, and that we will have some knowledge of the people whom we will be working with. It goes beyond expectations
Most interns are required to do some research during their period with Transient Workers Count Too. Coupled with their exposure to casework, this is to enable them to gain an in-depth understanding of at least one facet of the many issues migrant workers are faced with. Undergraduate Wang Shimeng interned with us in December 2017
By Tristan Powell-Odden, based on an interview in January 2018 Hossain Sabuj, like many other migrant workers, had a dream: To open a clothing store that re-sold American brands in Bangladesh, his home country. To raise the needed capital, he would work for a few years overseas. However, because of the exorbitant amounts of money
By Philomène Franssen based on an interview in January 2018 Those words in the headline I quote from Nazrul, a disillusioned worker currently waiting for the court hearing that will handle his salary claim. Freshly arrived in Singapore in 2007 with the hope to make a decent living in order to provide for his family
By Alston Ng, based on an interview in January 2018 In the midst of casual conversations with some usual faces at Alankar Restaurant, Hossen Mohammed Shamim, a 29-year-old Bangladeshi who has not worked for about a year and a half, interjects, “You want interview? Come, I give you interview, you help me.” Evidently not one
This is a long record (approximately 2,800 words) of what two foreign workers told TWC2 about their experiences with the same law firm. They had engaged the law firm following worksite accidents, but were soon unhappy with the relationship. Both workers either experienced or heard that representatives of the law firm made unsolicited and unwelcome contact
"The majority of respondents did not get enough to eat, regularly ate a limited variety of food, and often went to bed hungry in employers’ homes," reported Charlene Mohammed in her research paper publicly available at the University of Victoria website. The researcher is with the university's Department of Anthropology, and conducted her study in
By Liang Lei, based on an interview in December 2017 What is the role of a lawyer? While we struggle to form an encompassing definition of the profession, our foreign workers seem to have a fixed perception of them as their all-knowing protector. At TWC2, the vast majority of injured workers would already have engaged
