On 26 November 2012, 171 bus drivers from SMRT Corp did not turn up for work. Many of them did the same again the following day. Acting Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan-jin called it an "illegal strike" saying that public transport services had been classed as "essential services". Five drivers were charged with criminal offences
By Suresh When Khairul intervened to pacify two co-workers having an altercation, the boss, who had been watching all this while, suddenly came forward and pushed Khairul flat to the ground. He mounted Khairul’s chest and attempted to strangle him. The poor worker did not have a clue why all this was happening. For days
The law says that if a foreign worker is terminated within six months of starting a job in Singapore, the Singapore agent who placed him or her in that job shall refund 50 percent of the fees to the worker (Employment Agencies Rules 2011, section 13). Two recent cases seen by Transient Workers Count Too
By Lim Wei Zhen The slip of a drill left his right thumb fractured, and the hole in the road unfinished. It also punched a hole in Sivaraju's dream of a Singaporean road to riches. Growing up in the fishing village of Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, his face clouds over as he recalls the time when
By Wendy Mah On the second visit to a doctor, Venkata was told an operation might be needed. In the meantime, a cast was put around his injured left ankle. How many days' medical leave did he get? "The doctor said no MC needed, go to work," recalls Venkata with a mordant note to his
Nagaraju Ramakrishnan Raju has been waiting twenty months since his injury. A small piece of metal flew into the right eye of the 34-year-old construction worker in June 2011. He had four months of treatment at Tan Tock Seng Hospital before it was decided that he really needed an operation. "Doctor see me many, many
Salauddin broke down in tears when the court acquitted him, late December 2012. But by then, he had already lost his freedom for five months. And through that period, his family wondered what became of him and why remittances stopped. All because he didn't have money for bail. He didn't even have the $10 that
Hooq Samesul (above) went back to Raffles Hospital where he had been treated in March 2012. He asked for a copy of his medical records and a statement as to many days' medical leave was given to him. "Nurse say, 'No give'," he recounts to Transient Workers Count Too, meaning that his request was refused.
By Chow Zhi Ying Since the accident on 14 May 2012, injuring his right eye, Morshed Alam Saiful (above right) has been without income. He has been on medical leave but has not received any medical leave wages ('MC pay') from his employer. By law, as long as he is on MC, he should be
Mohamed Johon was one of 21 workers from the same company who marched to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in October 2012 to lodge salary complaints, but most of them have since settled for rather less than they were owed, he tells TWC2. He is one of four still demanding what is due to him
