By Danielle Hong Mohammed Gafur is here at the TWC2 office with a friend to deal with his injury compensation. He has kept all his bills and time cards, a practice of storing evidence learnt in the eleven years he has been living in Singapore. Though calm and rational, he is anxious, having witnessed too many
With additional reporting by Debbie Fordyce Part 1 described how Mollah Jahangir lost his job as soon as he asked his employer to pay for medical treatment. This, even though he had loyally worked for the company for eight years. And even though he continued working for five months since the start of 2014 when
"So many years, I not sick," says Mollah Jahangir, 35. "One time have problem only, boss quickly want to send me home." This employer enjoyed loyalty from his worker for eight years, but showed none in return. Mollah Jahangir worked as a grass cutter and occasional water pipe fixer for CPK Contractor Pte Ltd, one
We asked new volunteers who helped out at our July Outreach to contribute some reflection and feedback. Here is one: By Ying Zhen It was my first time participating in a TWC2 outreach activity. I was a little nervous at first because I did not know if I could do what was expected of me.
By Elizabeth Zhou Continued from Part 1. That night, Homun went out for a walk to clear his head. And as it was with Kamal’s plot, someone was following him – once again, he was Indian. He recognized him as the building’s security. Would he be told he would be sent home as soon as
By Elizabeth Zhou Getting injured is a foreign worker’s greatest nightmare. Monday, 5 May 2014. The evening was humid. Sweat gathered on his forehead and trickled down his side-burns. Homun adjusted his helmet and readied himself for a bit more work. It was almost time to go home. Then he plunged three metres, and found
The above photo came into TWC2's email box one day in June 2014. Taken around 7am and sent to us by a Singaporean resident in a block of apartments, it shows 25 - 30 foreign workers sleeping in a pavilion amid a housing estate. She told us that she was concerned about them. It didn't
Foreign worker levy rates have been rising in recent years and the trend continues through 2014 and 2015. The present rate for unskilled construction workers who are hired beyond the employer’s MYE (Man Year Entitlement) rose from $750 to $950/month in July 2014, and will reach to $1050/month in July 2015. The Straits Times quotes
9:30am -- the phone rang. On the line was a TWC2 volunteer telling us about a Filipina domestic worker Mercedes (not her real name) who was crying for help in a shopping mall. We advised the volunteer to send Mercedes to our office as soon as the worker had calmed down. When she arrived at
By Nissa Mai Asty attributes her improved quality of life to the new weekly day off law, which has opened up opportunities for her to develop valuable skills and connect with other Indonesian domestic workers in Singapore. But for the first six years of her employment here, she had no regular days off, nobody to
