By Fuxiong It's my first interview with a migrant worker and I am feeling like I am thick in the head. After nearly half an hour I still cannot make sense of Mark's story. The company that hired him is not where he worked. The boss was not really the boss, but he was also
Rashedul isn’t typical of the men who leave Bangladesh for Singapore in search of wealth and fortune, and he would be the first to acknowledge that himself. He was in the middle of completing his bachelors degree in English literature at Jagganath University in Dhaka when, following his father’s advice, he left home to find
A brief report in Today mentions a Christmas Day fatal fall of a 32-year-old construction worker at a Sengkang West Way worksite. The newspaper, citing the Ministry of Manpower, said the Chinese national was plastering a wall on the roof of the building when he fell through an opening. He was pronounced dead at the
A horrible accident resulting in death and injury reveals an employer who provided unwavering support for his Bangladeshi worker. An accident between a double-decker bus Service Number 87 and a large tree-pruning vehicle left a 50-year-old male passenger dead and several others injured on Friday. The collision occurred along Chai Chee Street in Bedok. Police
By Benjamin Wong TWC2 volunteer Siva (above at right) is decked out in a black T-shirt, grey bermudas and sandals. On the table next to him sits a stack of boxes. A worker approaches him, and Siva hands him one from the stack. The worker takes the box and looks at Siva with a slightly
Some cases that come to Transient Workers Count Too are very complicated. Others, especially of serious injuries, are heart-breaking. But Zay Lay Tun's request was a simple one: He wants help to resign from his job in an orderly way. He has no idea how. "I want go home see my mother," he says. He's
In a blogpost to mark International Migrants Day, Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin revealed some statistics: MOM receives some 7,000 telephone enquiries and 2,500 emails per month on employment-related matters from both local and foreign workers. Some 600 statutory employment claims (e.g. non-payment of salary or overtime pay, unauthorised deductions made from salary etc) are
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
In response to the labour dispute that erupted between SMRT Corp and its China bus drivers on 26 November 2012, the Singapore government has termed it an “illegal strike” and instituted legal proceedings against five of the drivers. One of them has since pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 6 weeks in jail. Following that,
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
