By Shri Devvi Elangovan “Many pain...I cried because a lot in pain”, describes Miah Mohammad Soman of the moments following his accident. He looks uncomfortable, as he sits in front of us with his left shoulder slouched lower and seemingly stiff. He was rushed to a private clinic in the Soon Lee area, but he
By Benjamin Wong In part 1 was the story of two workers who were worried that their medical records did not correctly capture the circumstances surrounding their workplace accidents. In both cases, the doctors didn't ask the patients how the injury occurred; representatives of the company spoke to the doctors instead. But employers have vested
By Benjamin Wong Injuries are the most common type of case Transient Workers Count Too encounters. For workers as with anyone, getting injured is far from a pleasant experience, to put it euphemistically. But as the many stories published have documented, the accident itself is often only the start of a worker's problems and difficulties
By Joyce Wong Where is next month’s money going to come from? Sitting in front of me is a very young, clean-shaven man. He is neatly dressed with his hair slightly touching his collar. Some would call him good-looking. He is here for his dinner at TWC2's soup kitchen when we ask to interview him.
By Gabriel Liong After working a long shift plus an additional four hours of overtime, Sahajan was looking forward to a restful night. It was 9.15pm. His day at the shipyard had begun at 7.30am. Climbing into the back of his company’s lorry, Sahajan made himself comfortable for the ride back to the dormitory. Little
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?
GO TO PART 23 November 2013, Saturday At last, the story appears in the Straits Times, but it's quite deeply buried within the local news section. The Online Citizen has a longer story. For a summary of both stories, see Menton Technologies' failure to pay salaries in the news. Alex visits one of the Geylang
By Keith W Workers who have worked in Singapore for a few years tend to know a bit more about their rights. They also know where to get assistance. They are less likely to suffer in silence when their bosses try to take advantage of them. Parvez Late Sona Miah has been in Singapore for
GO TO PART 21 November 2013, Thursday First thing this morning, our social workers call the Menton workers from Geylang, whom we met yesterday, to ask if they had a place to sleep last night and whether breakfast has been catered. They say Yes to both. We're glad to hear that. This means MOM has
GO TO PART 20 November 2013, Wednesday Through the course of the day, about four groups of men come in, until the total reaches about forty. Our main room and social workers' room have no more walking space. We've run out of chairs and some men are sitting on the floor. Similar to what we
