Articles

4 09, 2015

Surviving on borrowed money and three shirts

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:25+08:00September 4th, 2015|Articles, Stories|

By Daniel Ling “Driver put all my baju (clothes) in bag, tell me, ‘Boss say, tomorrow go Bangladesh for two month. [If] you no go, boss work permit cutting’”. Hossen Murad, 26, was still recovering from a serious workplace injury. Amid mounting medical bills here, his employer had sought to pressure him into returning to

1 09, 2015

Accused of salary non payment, employer gets inventive. MOM sees through it

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:25+08:00September 1st, 2015|Articles, Stories|

By Keith Wong Hossain feels vindicated. He came out of a meeting at the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday with a 'settlement paper' signed by his employer in which is stated that he will be paid his salary arrears no later than a week from now. The amount of approximately $5,700 is also more or less

28 08, 2015

Shipyard work is not for dreams

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:25+08:00August 28th, 2015|Articles, Stories|

By Joanna Korycinska $6,500 is the amount Hossain Jakir (above, right) paid upfront to secure a job in Singapore. It took him two and a half years to recover this 'investment' before he started earning anything he could send home. With the median wage in Singapore this year at $3,770, it is very difficult for

24 08, 2015

Little India: a learning landscape

GuestContributor2019-08-30T16:32:25+08:00August 24th, 2015|Articles, Facts, research, analysis|

By Shona Loong It is a sunny Saturday morning, and I am having a coffee with Jamail—a 32-year old Bangladeshi migrant—in a kopitiam on Veerasamy Road. As we talk, I can sense the uncle at the next table sneaking glances at us. Surely this is a curious sight: there are other Singaporean women and Bangladeshi

20 08, 2015

Can’t fault the employer, yet there is a trust deficit

alex2019-08-30T16:32:25+08:00August 20th, 2015|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, Stories|

When workers first approach TWC2 for help, an experienced volunteer would run through a checklist of questions with him. We do this because even though workers are quite able to describe the particular problem they need help with, they may not realise that there are other issues that require attention. For example, a worker who has

17 08, 2015

Four men, picked at random, speak of low pay and hardship, part 2

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:25+08:00August 17th, 2015|Articles, Stories|

Continued from Part 1: By Rabin Kok I am happy for Ishaq. However, Nitai Chandra Sarker, my next interviewee, reminds me that many workers are far less lucky. Nitai does not sport a smile – only a blank, wistful look. Like Islam, he too paid 400,000 takas (about S$7,000) just to secure a job in

14 08, 2015

Four men, picked at random, speak of low pay and hardship, part 1

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:25+08:00August 14th, 2015|Articles, Stories|

Rabin is a new volunteer doing his first interviews. At his first volunteering session, he was not expected to go for an in-depth story. Instead he was tasked to do quick interviews with a random pick of workers in order to gain a broad familiarity with the issues and the kind of broken English migrant

10 08, 2015

Kickbacks are illegal, but how to eliminate them?

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:25+08:00August 10th, 2015|Articles, Stories|

By Seema Punwani You must spend money to make money. Even Forbes magazine propagates this theory and it has probably inspired several entrepreneurs. A worker living across the Indian Ocean in Bangladesh who has limited formal education and sparse knowledge of English has in all probability not come across this famous quote. However for him this is

6 08, 2015

In one of the richest cities of the world, the wages of toil

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:25+08:00August 6th, 2015|Articles, Stories|

By Joanna Korycinska $6,500 is the amount Hossain Jahir paid upfront to secure a job in Singapore. It took him two and a half years to earn this amount back. Only then did his family begin to benefit from his working here. When he started on this job in March 2012, his pay was $16

2 08, 2015

Sivam’s saints

alex2019-08-30T16:32:25+08:00August 2nd, 2015|Articles, Stories|

On the evening of Thursday, 2 July 2015, Subbaiah Ramasivam flew home to Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, a very happy man. He was still slapping himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming it all. In his pocket were slightly over two thousand dollars, money that less than a week earlier, he thought he'd never see again.