News and opinions in the public domain and TWC2’s response

17 06, 2018

When court orders are worthless: the Zach Engineering case

2019-08-30T16:31:04+08:00June 17th, 2018|Articles, Our Stand, Stories|

Longform by Gautam Joseph with contribution by Choo Wai Hong  Timeline Dec 2014 Two workers at Zach Engineering summarily dismissed after employer has disagreement with Ministry of Manpower (MOM). Mar – Jun 2015 Two workers rehired by Zach Engineering, three other Bangladeshi workers join. Oct 2015 Fifteen workers paid only food allowance. Indian workers fight

8 06, 2018

48 Nihal workers left high and dry, and MOM’s ‘softly, softly’ role

2019-08-30T16:31:04+08:00June 8th, 2018|Articles, Media Coverage, News, Stories|

None of the workers has gotten any real satisfaction. Nada. Worse yet, it was hardly an unusual case; it's becoming all too common for migrant workers to be left high and dry after their employers fail to pay the agreed salaries and the Ministry of Manpower's dispute resolution system either grinds too slowly, or grinds

15 05, 2018

MOM says Singapore’s workplace injury reporting criteria are “aligned to international practices”

2019-08-30T16:31:04+08:00May 15th, 2018|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, News, News Flash, Our Stand|

Member of Parliament Louis Ng put in an oral question for oral answer on 19 February 2018, on the topic of injury reporting. Sam Tan, the Minister of State for Manpower replied on behalf of the minister. Nominated Member of Parliament K Thanaletchimi also contributed a supplementary question during the debate. See too TWC2's comment

28 04, 2018

Singapore needs to relook foreign labour, says Finance Minister

2019-08-30T16:31:05+08:00April 28th, 2018|News, News Flash|

The inflow of foreign workers must remain "well-calibrated" to encourage firms to continue improving productivity, said Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat. This was reported in Today newspaper on 18 April 2018.  "We need to maintain that calibration in order to send a very strong signal that productivity improvement is going to be key, and investing

25 04, 2018

Employment Claims Tribunal handled 1,190 cases in first year of operations

2019-08-30T16:31:05+08:00April 25th, 2018|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, News, News Flash|

Marking the first anniversary of the new system for salary disputes, the State Courts issued a media statement on 24 April 2018 providing some statistics about the cases they handled during the first twelve months. From 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018, the Employment Claims Tribunals (ECT), a unit within the State Courts, saw

19 04, 2018

On average, injured workers with TWC2 wait eleven months for compensation

2019-08-30T16:31:05+08:00April 19th, 2018|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, News, Our Stand|

The typical worker who is with TWC2's Cuff Road Project has waited nearly six months since his workplace accident. Yet he is still some distance from the conclusion of his Work Injury Compensation (Wica) claim. Typically, this worker is still in the first of four phases: getting medical treatment or simply waiting for an assessment

2 04, 2018

Exploitative law firms: systemic solutions needed from MOM

2019-08-30T16:31:06+08:00April 2nd, 2018|News, Our Stand|

In late March 2018, a short while after this article Two injured workers provide detailed accounts of a law firm's practices was published, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) asked for the names of the workers and law firms involved. Transient Workers Count Too declined to provide this information. As the details of that story indicated, the

16 03, 2018

TWC2 submits proposals for improving Singapore’s Employment Act

2019-08-30T16:31:06+08:00March 16th, 2018|Articles, Facts, research, analysis, News, Our Stand|

The Singapore government invited submissions for proposed amendments to the Employment Act. TWC2 made a proposal centred on five areas which will benefit the most number of workers.  As our submission makes clear, TWC2’s proposed amendments are envisioned to support all employees in Singapore. Even if some of our ideas are of particular importance to

28 02, 2018

Employer sent to jail, worker’s compensation still unpaid. Is this good enough?

2019-08-30T16:31:07+08:00February 28th, 2018|Media Coverage, News, Our Stand|

Suriakumar Ridgeway Ramaiah, will be serving jailtime for failing to pay injury compensation to a worker. Strictly speaking, the sole proprietor of Ridgeway Marine and Construction, was fined $21,000 on 16 November 2016 for failing to buy work injury insurance for his workers, and for not paying compensation when so ordered, but having defaulted on these, he was

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