By Lucas Ho Selvam (not his real name) rests his head, heavy with worry, in his hand. "I very worry," he says. "So many nights I cannot sleep." He knows about a recent the report in the Straits Times: "22 Indian nationals charged for false declaration of salaries," ran the headline in the Straits Times
Transient Workers Count Too understood from indirect sources that the Ministry of Manpower originally had no plan to prosecute employer Woolim Plant Engineering for failing to pay correct salaries. For background to story, see Part 1 and Part 2. The reason given was (we heard) that the workers "didn't want to press charges." TWC2 continued
Transient Workers Count Too made a written submission to the Commission of Inquiry that has been set up to look into the riot that occurred on the evening of 8 December 2013 on Race Course Road in Little India. This was sent to the COI in the first week of February. The pdf of
In a noteworthy decision, the High Court ruled that the Ministry of Manpower's Assistant Commissioner for Labour misapprehended the law, applying it wrongly. The latter (also known informally as the Labour Court) had ruled in favour of the employer VGP Corp Ltd. But the High Court, in a written decision released on 31 December 2013,
This downloadable document is a consolidation of the various recommendations that Transient Workers Count Too has made to the Ministry of Manpower in the last few months and years, with respect to injured workers. Injured worker issues are quite distinct from the salary non-payment issues. For the latter, the recommendations are more straightforward: detailed itemised
Sunday Times, 9 February 2014 carried a feature article by Radha Basu, leading with a figure that Bangladeshi worker Hussain Iqbal had given TWC2: $1.50. That was the hourly rate that his employer paid him for nearly a year, despite a document issued by the Ministry of Manpower confirming that his employer Woolim would pay
Transient Workers Count Too submitted a 23-page set of proposals to government feedback portal REACH in advance of the 2014 budget debate in Parliament. Among the many recommendations are these key ones: A. Permit job mobility among work permit holders This is key starting point for the oft-stated desire to improve productivity in Singapore. The
Nine worksite fatalities were recorded in the first month of 2014, reported the Straits Times (ST, 30 Jan 2014, Structure collapse kills one, injures 10 workers in Sentosa, by Yeo Sam Jo). The latest victim was a 36-year-old Chinese national working on a project on Sentosa. Ten others were injured Wednesday 29 January when the
Media Statement For immediate release 14 January 2014 On 13 January 2014, the Ministry of Manpower issued a media statement "Tripartite Guidelines on Issuance of Itemised Payslips". Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) have been highlighting for years the need to make itemised payslips mandatory, as an essential step in combating salary abuses, a common problem
Former president of Transient Workers Count Too, John Gee, spoke at the NUS Human Trafficking Conference on 10 January 2014. Others on the panel included Kandhavel Periyasamy (Joint Ops Director, Ministry of Manpower), Jolovan Wham (Workfair Singapore) and two students from Singapore Management University who recently did a project relating to trafficking. John's paper was titled: Migrants
