Articles

14 01, 2015

Deeply in debt, Musfiqur stays cheerful

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:54+08:00January 14th, 2015|Articles, Stories|

By Ashley Frois We're barely under the eaves. Rain, like troubles, pours down mere inches from our seats. Everything is damp. Two seats away and drier, a fellow volunteer is interviewing another construction worker, Rahman Sadequr. That worker is speaking morosely of his money problems. My interviewee, Musfiqur (pictured above), is strangely upbeat. He too

10 01, 2015

Months after initial complaints to ministry, housing and salary abuses still surfacing

alex2019-08-30T16:32:54+08:00January 10th, 2015|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, Stories|

We didn't at first plan to write up their story because it was a story we've heard countless times before -- not that their plight was any less distressful for them. The men from Harri Construction complained of unpaid salaries, losing their jobs, and terrible conditions at their quarters. But two months later, the Straits

7 01, 2015

Careful spitting merits fine

webmaster2019-08-30T16:32:54+08:00January 7th, 2015|Articles, Stories|

"You did Spit onto a Public Place (Drain)" -- this was the awkward and legalistic way Imran’s Notice to Attend Court described his offence. How was he to know that spitting in a drain by the side of the road was wrong? “No person shall spit any substance or expel mucus from the nose upon

3 01, 2015

The death loan

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:54+08:00January 3rd, 2015|Articles, Stories|

By Seema Punwani "I cannot go back! If I go back I die. I die". Rahman keeps repeating in his broken English. His friend who is kindly acting as a translator tries to calm him down and entreats him to explain his predicament in detail. And so begins Rahman's story -- sadly not very unlike

28 12, 2014

Genius Engineering, part 3: nearly 100 skilled electricians lost

alex2019-08-30T16:32:54+08:00December 28th, 2014|Articles, News, Our Stand, Stories|

Four months after employees of Genius Engineering and related companies lodged salary complaints with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), Mouazzam Hossin (pictured above) is still in Singapore, struggling to get something out of what he is owed. Mouazzam is among the last of the workers still here. Nearly all the rest -- there were altogether

24 12, 2014

Stranded in Batam, agent denies responsibility

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:55+08:00December 24th, 2014|Articles, Stories|

By Meera Rajah Yati (not her real name) was promised that she would only have to wait in Batam for a week, before returning to Singapore to work with a new employer. The week became a month, and the month eventually turned into a year. Her previous employer had “scream[ed] and throw the things then

21 12, 2014

Feroz the accountant

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:55+08:00December 21st, 2014|Articles, Stories|

By Walter Wadiak As I sit down to do my first interview with a migrant worker, I’m looking for problems. Perhaps a story about an uncompensated injury — I have already seen plenty of these in my few visits here. Maybe I will find a man whose meagre salary has been either underpaid or not

17 12, 2014

Injured Hossian hidden away in locked container

Volunteer Writing Team2019-08-30T16:32:55+08:00December 17th, 2014|Articles, Stories|

By Fuxiong In the minutes following his three-metre fall, with his right shin and back in pain, Hossian Ramzan was carried by two "tamil man" on the instructions of a company supervisor to a shipping container, "to rest". "Then they lock the door." It worried him, but at first he gave them the benefit of

14 12, 2014

No pay for 2 years, slapped for saying hello to a fellow worker

GuestContributor2019-08-30T16:32:55+08:00December 14th, 2014|Articles, Stories|

By Lauri When she came down to meet us for the first time, "she had only a small bag containing her documents," Karno recalls. "She didn't even have her clothes and things." TWC2 social worker Karno and a volunteer were waiting at the foot of an HDB block of flats to rescue Indonesian domestic worker

11 12, 2014

Chodawre looking at maybe a year more of enforced unemployment

alex2019-08-30T16:32:56+08:00December 11th, 2014|Articles, Stories|

It is still October 2014. Chodawre Badal doesn't say much, but just shows your writer a letter from the National University Hospital (NUH) giving him an assessment date for 8 May 2015, seven months away. 'Assessment' is the stage when a worker, following a work injury, is assessed for residual permanent incapacity, so that an