Facts, research, analysis

14 02, 2014

Injured workers inside and outside WICA: processes, problems and solutions

webmaster2019-08-30T16:33:36+08:00February 14th, 2014|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, News, Our Stand|

This downloadable document is a consolidation of the various recommendations that Transient Workers Count Too has made to the Ministry of Manpower in the last few months and years, with respect to injured workers. Injured worker issues are quite distinct from the salary non-payment issues. For the latter, the recommendations are more straightforward: detailed itemised

1 02, 2014

Workplace injuries and migrant workers

webmaster2019-08-30T16:33:37+08:00February 1st, 2014|Articles, Facts, research, analysis|

By John Gee The annual report for 2012 of the Occupational Safety and Health Division (link to Part 1, Part 2), released in March 2013, ("OSHD Report") showed that the number of workplace deaths had fallen to 56, its lowest level in nine years. However, the total number of injuries had risen over ten per

24 12, 2013

Informed consent, wages, kickbacks, termination and transfers

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:11+08:00December 24th, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis|

Four first-year law students were attached to Transient Workers Count Too for three weeks in December 2013. The project we designed for them involved interviewing as many workers as they could on themes of their choice. However, these themes had to be drawn from the submission that TWC2 made to the Ministry of Manpower on

7 12, 2013

The difference WICA makes

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:14+08:00December 7th, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis|

Several stories on our website tell of workers who complain that their employers deny that their injuries were caused by workplace accidents. A recent study by Transient Workers Count Too and Healthserve found that a significant percentage of them worry about what their employers told doctors about the circumstances of the accident. But why? Why

6 12, 2013

Who said what to the doctor?

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:14+08:00December 6th, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, News, Our Stand|

About one in three injured workers, when brought to medical attention after an accident, find that it is the boss or company representative who tells the doctor what caused the injury. The worker doesn't get a chance to speak. Yet, it is rare that the boss or company representative witnessed the accident. Another one-third of

29 11, 2013

Do workers exaggerate their injuries? Part 1

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:14+08:00November 29th, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, Media Coverage, News, Our Stand|

An article in the Straits Times, 9 November 2013, on workers' injuries and medical leave prompted a small flurry of letters to the newspaper's Forum page. The initial article, headlined 'Hospitals give too much sick leave for injuries: Bosses' reported that Bosses are crying foul that foreign workers are getting too much medical leave from

29 11, 2013

Do workers exaggerate their injuries? Part 2

alex2019-08-30T16:34:14+08:00November 29th, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, Media Coverage, News, Stories|

The scab on one of Das Thiru's knees about three weeks after the accident Continued from PART 'The employers believe these workers exaggerate their injuries to fool doctors' – so reported the Straits Times on 9 November 2013 (‘Hospitals give too much sick leave for injuries: Bosses’ by Amelia Tan) Is this true?

9 10, 2013

65 percent of injured and salary-claim workers threatened with premature repatriation

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:17+08:00October 9th, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, Happenings|

For both groups -- those regularly working and those with injury and salary claims-- the threat of premature repatriation creates a lot of stress. It is the most important stress factor among working workers, and the second-most important, after being injured, among injured and salary-claim workers. Having uncleared debts incurred in agents fees also hung

24 09, 2013

Study on injured workers’ housing conditions reveals widespread neglect of employers’ responsibilities

webmaster2019-08-30T16:34:18+08:00September 24th, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis|

Only 28 percent of injured workers have been offered accommodation by their employer (sometimes, MOM) post-injury. This despite the fact that the law requires employers to provide decent housing while they are in Singapore. Even so, these 28 percent were not in that offered accommodation; they fled for fear of forced repatriation and other pressing

22 09, 2013

Training centres in Bangladesh have become money-minting machines

alex2019-08-30T16:34:18+08:00September 22nd, 2013|Articles, Facts, research, analysis|

It started as a way to ensure that migrant workers coming to Singapore had some basic skills, but the raison d'etre has since become something else: to extract as much money as possible from the poor. "It" is the tangled business of providing training, testing and recruitment in Bangladesh. The key to its metamorphosis is