News and opinions in the public domain and TWC2’s response
Rezzilyn Lodia Vinegas, 33, and Mohamad Sumon Lutfar, 22, were found dead with severe slash wounds on Sunday night (March 4, 2012). Their bodies, with injuries to the throat and arms, were found by a hotel worker about five and a half hours after they checked in together into the inn, located in
Minister of State for Manpower Tan Chuan-jin announced in parliament that employers of foreign domestic workers on new or renewed Work Permits starting Jan 1, 2013, will be required to give a weekly day off. However, if the worker agrees to work on her day off, she can be compensated with additional pay, computed at
Transient Workers Count Too Monday, 5 March 2012 Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) welcomes the announcement by the Ministry of Manpower requiring a weekly rest day for foreign domestic workers (FDW). TWC2 has been advocating this ever since we started in 2003 and is pleased that this significant move forward is now being taken. Over
A 26-year-old domestic worker plunged to her death after clinging on for five minutes eight floors above the ground. She was believed to have been cleaning the windows when she lost her footing. One of two people who tried to hold on to her and pull her in was a fellow Indonesian maid from a
The New Paper, 14 January 2012, reported that the coroner had ruled the death of Bangladeshi worker Md Roni Miya Md Rajaul Karim, 20, was probably one of suicide. His death had been reported in TWC2's earlier story A life cut tragically short, a brother seeks answers (27 December 2011). The facts presented at the
Norhanita Sulaiman, 43, pleaded guilty, February 21, 2012, to criminal intimidation against her domestic worker from Indonesia. The employer had threatened Siti Musyarofah, 44, with a 12cm-long knife, and branded on her face with a hot iron. The abuses began in February 2010. In June that year, unhappy that Siti reprimanded Norhanita's three-year-old son for
Today, the newspaper, carried a story attributed to its sister medium, Channel NewsAsia, reporting that 27 employers were taken to court in the first six months of 2011 for hiring illegal workers. Most were fined, with only two receiving jailtime. The story mentioned the need to raise wages in response to labour shortage, though this
Statement to the media by Transient Workers Count Too 8 February 2012 For immediate release The recently reported strike by about 200 foreign workers at a worksite in Tampines over unpaid salaries once again highlights the inadequacy of existing systems for preventing such exploitation of labour by employers. (Straits Times, 7 Feb 2012, Wage dispute
The Online Citizen reported, February 6, 2012, that about 200 mostly Bangladeshi workers downed tools at their worksite in Tampines over unpaid salaries. The key details reported were: At 8 am, instead of starting work, the workers went on strike because they have not been paid since October 2011. TOC understands that several pleas to
Andy Nelson Ng Mui Shee (right) was fined $16,000 on Monday, January 30, 2012, for four counts of false declaration of foreign workers' salaries. This is an offence under the Employment of Foriegn Workers Act. The assistant sales manager at an employment agency had been asked by two client companies -- Sun Blues Cleaning Maintenance
