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
18 Nov 2013, Monday evening A small group of five men approach TWC2 executive committee members Debbie Fordyce and Alex Au at our free meals location in Little India, telling us that they've not been paid and have lost their jobs. Two more workers arrive and Alex sits down with all seven of them to
Mozumder nearly died. He was inches away from falling six floors. Then the Ministry of Manpower wanted to send him to jail, accused of lying about the accident. Today he is a free man, very thankful to Transient Workers Count Too and to pro-bono lawyers Nicole Wee and Joanna Goh of TSMP Law Corporation. The
By Fuxiong "Now you see, my finger swollen," says Arangulavan Sri Ram, "but no more appointment at Mount E." Mount Elizabeth Hospital at Novena was where he had been treated post-accident, but with no further follow-up appointments scheduled, Ram went to Tan Tock Seng Hospital instead last week. Two fingers on his right hand have
