On 6 March 2019, Nominated Member of Parliament Anthea Ong asked the Minister of Manpower to supply figures for 2017 and 2018 respectively regarding ... (a) how many salary claims were filed by (i) local employees and (ii) foreign workers at the Employment Claims Tribunal; (b) how many court orders were issued to errant employers
The photo is of an illuminated billboard along Bukit Batok West Avenue 3. It seeks to inform workers of their employment rights, and is sponsored by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) the Central Provident Fund and TAFEP (Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices). The smaller words in the poster say: Get paid for
At a Parliamentary sitting on 12 February 2019, Nominated member of Parliament Anthea Ong asked the Minister for Manpower this question: What was the value of unpaid salaries in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively, according to the orders made by the Employment Claims Tribunal on employers to pay owed salaries. Mrs Josephine Teo, Manpower
Introduction Accompanying this introduction is a six-part series of articles that spotlights the In-Principle Approval for a Work Permit (“IPA”), a key document in the import of foreign labour into Singapore. Behind the document is a process that, over time, has shown several weaknesses. What began as a document and process with a laudable aim
Part 4: MOM begins at last to respond to changing circumstances In Part 2 of this series, we described how workers with salary claims often pointed to the stated salaries in their In-Princple Approvals for Work permits ("IPA") [footnote 1] as the basis for their claims. However, the Ministry of Manpower ("MOM") itself took the
Part 2: Salary terms Very few of the migrant workers from India and Bangladesh working in non-domestic sectors have written employment contracts. Contracts are more common with workers from China, but typically these contracts are signed in their home country between the agent and the worker. TWC2 noticed that Ministry of Manpower (MOM) officers often
By Cheryl Lim, based on an interview in May 2018 With his jaw tightly clenched throughout our entire one-hour conversation, 41-year-old construction worker Rahman Habibur, repeatedly asks me, “Can you get back my money? You can help?” “We will try our best,” I reply. With his hand on the official court order he brought to
On 20 July 2018, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) posted a note on Facebook (Link) saying they wished to refute two claims that we made in the article Jaynal lost hs case at ECT; was the tribunal’s decision sound? which can be found at this link. This is our response to MOM’s statement ("refutations") First of
On 19 October 2017, Abedin Md Jaynal spent virtually the whole day in the Employment Claims Tribunal (ECT) arguing his case. By the close of the day, it was over, and he had lost. The magistrate dismissed his salary claim. Jaynal told TWC2 that the magistrate was actually sympathetic to his side of the case,
The main part of this story is based on an interview in November 2017, when the outcome was hard to predict. The postscript was written in April 2018 after the case had concluded. The narrative hinges on dates. As you read it, pay close attention to the dates. On Thursday, 16 November 2017, Sarker Md
