News and opinions in the public domain and TWC2’s response
This is the unedited version of a letter sent to the editor of Straits Times Forum on September 30, 2011, in relation to an article that appeared in the paper the same day (see summary): Dear ST, It is good to see that action is being taken against employers who fail to pay workers' salaries
Six persons -- five men and a woman -- were charged in court for failing to pay employees' salaries, reported the Straits Times on September 28, 2011. Jufri Saini, 47, faced the most charges - 136 of them -- among which were 42 for unauthorised deductions of $100 each from foreign workers to prevent them
The Ministry of Manpower announced on October 3, 2011, that charges will be increased for the application and issuing of Work Permits. The changes will effect from December 1, 2011. The new charges will be $20 to apply for a Work Permit, and $20 for the issuing of a Work Permit Currently, the fee for
TWC2 Executive Committee member Debbie Fordyce was featured in a two-page spread in The New Paper, September 30, 2011. The story's focus was on her extending hospitality to injured migrant workers, letting them stay with her in your apartment till they have recovered or their cases resolved. You can read the full story by downloading
By Spiegel The Straits Times reported October 1, 2011 that The Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) had meted out fines amounting to more than $150,000 to 16 employment agencies for collectively fixing the pay of new Indonesian maids. Members of the group were each fined between $5,000 and $42,317. The CCS explained that the fines
Only four countries are in the list for now, and Singapore is not among them, reported the Straits Times, September 20, 2011. The four destinations are: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. It was stressed however, that the list is not final and Singapore could be added later. The originating source was Indonesian news
Din Islam, who almost starved to death in the ten days he was trapped in a shipping container, will finally be going home to Bangladesh after six months in Singapore. He had been allowed to stay while waiting for the coroner 's court proceedings inquiring into the death of his friend Mohammad Alamin. The two
Yahoo News reported on 15 September 2011 that 18 workers from China were recently jailed four weeks each for submitting false educational qualifications in order to secure jobs in Singapore. The full article can be read here. Many of those accused pleaded with the court to understand that they had done so under duress, as
Official policy is in the process of change. An inter-agency anti-trafficking task force was set up in November 2010, co-chaired by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Manpower. Singapore says that it is now using the definition of trafficking in the anti-trafficking protocol (see Singapore falls short of international protocol) as the
Here are five reasons why the exploitation of low-wage migrant workers hurts Singaporeans' interests. Wages are depressed When employers get away with paying extremely low wages, or worse, promising low wages, but in actual fact paying even less than that through all sorts of illegal deductions, there is a general lowering of wage levels for
