Twenty Indian workers, employees of Sime Chong Construction, refused to report for work on Tuesday 18 December 2012 over two months of salary arrears, reported various media on 18 and 19 December 2012. Four other workers, from China, had earlier lodged complaints at the Ministry of Manpower on 7 November 2012 over the same issue and

The lead story on the front page of the Straits Times (18 Dec 2012: Dormitory operators unite to raise standards) was about eight dormitory operators founding a new Dormitory Association of Singapore (DASL) in September this year. More interestingly, the story provided some numbers about dormitory beds in Singapore. It said that these eight companies

Two workers from China have been charged for criminal trespass after they climbed atop a crane to protest what they said was a case of salary non-payment. The Ministry of Manpower was quick to deny that they were owed any salaries and the men were arrested as soon as they were persuaded to climb down.

Five ex-SMRT bus drivers have been charged for criminal offences. Bao Fengshan's case was heard on 3 December 2012. He was accused of "commencing the strike", pleaded guilty and was jailed six weeks. (Channel NewsAsia, 3 Dec 2012, 6 weeks' jail for SMRT bus driver involved in strike, by Dylan Loh) Gao Yueqiang, 32; Liu Xiangying,

Mominul Islam, 36, died at his worksite on the morning of 16 November 2012. He was killed when steel rods fell on him. The Straits Times reported a co-worker describing the incident at 30, Tuas Bay Drive, as one where a "wire mesh" (probably a criss-cross assembly of rods) weighing between three and five tons

Two companies, Techcom Construction & Trading and Sunway Concrete Products, were charged in court for failing to pay their workers on time, reported the Straits Times on Friday, 16 Nov 2012. Sunway is the main contractor for Techcom. Techcom faces a total of 59 charges under the Employment Act for failing to pay its workers

In quite possibly the first case of its kind, a former factory manager was fined $8,000 and ordered to pay a further penalty of $4,030 for corruption. Toh Phoo Chye, 46, had obtained Nokia mobile phones from foreign workers in exchange for recommending to the management to renew their work permits. This case was reported