News and opinions in the public domain and TWC2’s response
The subject of paying for medical treatment needed by foreign workers came up in a letter by a Jeffrey Law published by the Straits Times in its online edition on March 14, 2012. Below it is the reply by the Ministry of Manpower, followed by a letter by Debbie Fordyce, a member of TWC2's executive
The term 'placement fees' will, after May 1, 2012, only include the cost of medical check-ups, document processing and charges by Indonesian training centres, unlike currently where the term includes fees by recruitment agencies and other middlemen. This change will mean lowering placement fees from about $3,000 currently to about $1,600 for first-time maids and
The New Paper published a laudable background feature on domestic maids from the Philippines and Indonesia on Monday, March 26, 2012. In the three-page spread by lead writer Amanda Phua, the story described their pre-Singapore lives back in their villages where electricity is a luxury and modern household appliances unknown. It shows how hard the
The Ministry of Manpower’s extension of the maximum period of employment of work permit holders from six to ten years is a move in the right direction (See http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/Pages/PressReleasesDetail.aspx?listid=415). Like the ministry, Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) believes that improving the skill levels and productivity of foreign workers should be a key aim. This move,
In a statement issued March 26, 2012, the Ministry of Manpower announced that work permit holders from "non-traditional sources" such as Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand, as well as from China, can be employed for a maximum of ten years, up from six years previously. The statement can be seen at http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/Pages/PressReleasesDetail.aspx?listid=415 The ministry
Shokkanarayanan Ramakrishnan, 43, was sentenced to four weeks' jail for abetting a false declaration as part of an S-Pass scam. The Permanent Resident was then an employment agent with Islets Solutions Pte Ltd, and had helped an employer (not named in the Channel NewsAsia story, March 26, 2012) "to falsely over-declare the monthly salaries of
Desperate Cambodians, recruited into the Thai fishing fleet, have been jumping off their boats to escape life-threatening work conditions. They are often not paid either, reported Nirmal Ghosh , Straits Times' correspondent in Thailand. The feature story (Straits Times, 24 March 2012, Thai fishing trade under fire for human trafficking) detailed that about 30 Cambodians
Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Wanbao and the Straits Times reported that a domestic worker from Indonesia fell to her death on Saturday afternoon, March 17, 2012. She fell from her employer's home on the 13th floor of a flat in Pasir Ris Street 71. From the bamboo clothes pole found next to her, it probably happened
In a side panel to an article in the Straits Times story on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 (Retire on CPF savings? Think again, by Radha Basu), associate professor Hui Weng Tat cautioned about the possibility of employers attempting to recover higher levy rates by lowering foreign worker wages, and urged greater attention to raising productivity. Straits
Vitria Wahyuni was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment by Justice Choo Han Teck for killing her employer, Madam Sng Gek Wah, 87, on November 25, 2009. The domestic worker, then aged 16, had been in the job for only four days when she strangled the older lady after being subjected to scoldings and
