Articles

18 05, 2018

Bumpy ride for Alaguraja as employer goes doctor-shopping

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:31:04+08:00May 18th, 2018|Articles, Stories|

By Alston Ng, based on an interview in March 2018 It has been 18 years since Ganapathi Alaguraja first arrived in Singapore as a foreign worker, but his impeccable record of accident-free workdays came to an end when a spinning drill-bit crushed a finger on 1 March. Despite the years of experience living and working

15 05, 2018

MOM says Singapore’s workplace injury reporting criteria are “aligned to international practices”

webmaster2019-08-30T16:31:04+08:00May 15th, 2018|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, News, News Flash, Our Stand|

Member of Parliament Louis Ng put in an oral question for oral answer on 19 February 2018, on the topic of injury reporting. Sam Tan, the Minister of State for Manpower replied on behalf of the minister. Nominated Member of Parliament K Thanaletchimi also contributed a supplementary question during the debate. See too TWC2's comment

15 05, 2018

Do MOM’s injury statistics hide more than they reveal?

webmaster2019-08-30T16:31:04+08:00May 15th, 2018|Articles, Facts, research, analysis|

A TWC2 research volunteer recently unearthed some interesting statistics regarding workplace injuries in the construction industry. Compared to other industrialised nations, the ratio of construction injury to overall injury rate and the ratio of construction injuries to fatalities is relatively low in Singapore. In the construction sector, the ratio of injuries to fatalities was 82:1 for Singapore in 2015. This

11 05, 2018

From too much noise to an uneasy silence

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:31:05+08:00May 11th, 2018|Articles, Stories|

By Sun Hanchen, based on an interview in January 2018 I wrote about Rajan (not his real name) in an earlier story "Worker asks for reimbursement of medical bills, sets off chain of events". In this story, I will recount his work history, to give readers a glimpse into a foreign worker's experience in Singapore through

7 05, 2018

The cook and the consumer

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:31:05+08:00May 7th, 2018|Articles, Stories|

By Aaron Chua, based on interviews conducted in March 2018 At Transient Workers Count Too, we are mostly dealing with cases of salary and injury problems, but what do the day-to-day affairs of an average migrant worker look like? We got a glimpse of how their meals were managed when we recently interviewed a couple

2 05, 2018

“Company don’t want me anymore,” says this year’s luckiest worker

webmaster2019-08-30T16:31:05+08:00May 2nd, 2018|Articles, Stories|

About ten months after Subra broke his hip, the doctor said it was time to take the metal plate and screws out. His bones had fused well. It would mean a second operation. Subra rather liked the security of having the metal pieces in place; who knows what would happen if they were taken out?

28 04, 2018

Worker asks for reimbursement of medical bills, sets off chain of events

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:31:05+08:00April 28th, 2018|Articles, Stories|

By Sun Hanchen, based on an interview in January 2018 Some months after the accident in September 2016, Rajan (not his real name) was back at work on Jurong Island, albeit instructed by the doctor to undertake only “light duties”. One morning in April 2017, heading to his worksite, he was informed by a colleague

25 04, 2018

Employment Claims Tribunal handled 1,190 cases in first year of operations

webmaster2019-08-30T16:31:05+08:00April 25th, 2018|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, News, News Flash|

Marking the first anniversary of the new system for salary disputes, the State Courts issued a media statement on 24 April 2018 providing some statistics about the cases they handled during the first twelve months. From 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018, the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT), a unit within the State Courts, saw

24 04, 2018

Alone in a foreign country knowing no one who can help

webmaster2019-08-30T16:31:05+08:00April 24th, 2018|Articles, Stories|

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

19 04, 2018

On average, injured workers with TWC2 wait eleven months for compensation

webmaster2019-08-30T16:31:05+08:00April 19th, 2018|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, News, Our Stand|

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