Interesting updates related to migrant worker issues
The newspaper Today reported on 26 April 2013 that construction company Zhong Jiang (Singapore) International was fined $8,000 for failing to pay salaries on time to ten workers, between last October and December. The salaries that were paid late came up to more than S$44,400, and were for the months of September to November. The company pleaded guilty to
Volunteer Christine Pelly flipped Mahadi's dinner card over and noticed that the date of accident recorded on it was more than one year ago. She directed the young man to your writer, who this evening was interested in the stories of those with prolonged cases. Visibly, there was no obvious injury on Mahadi. "Where are
"We all are aware of how certain sectors do practice churning and I will be looking at clamping down on that through the EFMA (Employment of Foreign Manpower Act) measures,"said Acting Minister for Manpower, Tan Chuan-jin, in parliament on 14 March 2013 during the budget debate. However, the specific change he announced was only for
Magalingam Rajesh, 29, a construction worker from India, was killed slightly after 7am on Friday, 15 March 2013, when the lorry he was riding in tipped over onto its side. He was among eight workers seated on the lorry's flatbed. The Straits Times reported that he had been working in Singapore for eight years. The
"A proposal that has received wide public support is on legislating mandatory payslips and salary records for all employees," said Acting Minister for Manpower, Tan Chuan-jin, in parliament on 14 March 2013. "Some MPs also raised this and we are supportive." He didn't mention that TWC2 has been pressing his ministry on this for years.
The Ministry of Manpower is launching a pilot scheme to allow four hundred Cambodian domestic workers in. It has invited employment agents to apply to join the scheme. The Straits Times reported that six agencies will be selected. (See Straits Times, 2 Feb 2013, Your next maid could be from... Cambodia) The 400 will arrive
Channel NewsAsia (reported) on 28 January 2013 that seven employers were convicted for failure to give foreign workers acceptable housing in 2012. In total, 1,062 employers were warned or fined in 2012 for providing foreign workers with poor accommodation, the news report said. Since only seven were "convicted", it appears that the "fined" were perhaps
For the first time as far as anyone in TWC2 can remember, the government has revealed how much it collects each year in foreign worker levies. Every employer who hires a foreign worker in Singapore has to pay a monthly levy based on a prevailing scale of charges. To a parliamentary question by Gan Thiam
Administrative fees for work passes will be increased on 1 April 2013, announced the Ministry of Manpower on 10 January 2013. Below is the annex to the ministry's announcement providing a table of charges before and after: While employers of Work Permit holders are supposed to bear administrative fees for application, issuance and renewal, the
"Singapore will find it difficult to recruit foreign construction workers even from newer markets like Sri Lanka and the Philippines if it does not match salaries that employers elsewhere are offering," reported the Straits Times on 3 Jan 2013. The newspaper was aggregating the reactions of agents, employers and migrant rights activists to news that
