With the 2014 statistics now out on the Ministry of Manpower's website, a steady rise in workplace injuries can be seen through the five-year period 2010 to 2014. Here are the key numbers: These figures are shown in the bar chart below: It is not clear how "major injuries" are determined and differentiated from "minor
Statement by Transient Workers Count Too On 28 September 2015, Singapore acceded to the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (UN TIP Protocol), often known as the Palermo Protocol. This is the key international legal instrument for combatting trafficking. Though just over 15 years old, it has
By Ranjana Raghunathan Adaikkalam Nagarajan, 32, was given a “special shoe” to wear for a month. “No other treatment! I was in pain for a month, even with painkillers. I was given light-duty for a month, no medical leave.” TWC2 has noted that many doctors don't issue full medical leave certificates, but only light duty
Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) is gravely concerned that current bad haze conditions will affect the health of workers in many trades, e.g. construction, marine, sanitation, landscaping. TWC2 strongly urges the government to impose a mandatory Stop Work Order when 3-hour average PSI readings, issued hourly, exceed 200, or when PM2.5 readings exceed 50 micrograms
By Hong Ying Harun Rashid Or has not had the treatment doctors recommended since his accident on 25 August 2015. While trying to understand why, the Ministry of Manpower's own processes come into the picture. As much as he is being victimised by a callous employer, he may also be disadvantaged by a bureaucracy too lax
Medical treatment and housing -- two issues that workers, after an injury, find themselves grappling with. They shouldn't have to, and it is troubling to any outside observer that soon after an injury, perhaps still in pain with mobility difficulties, anyone should find himself with these additional complications. For a little insight as to how and why these
By Elizabeth Zhou Sagor Mohammad and Abu Bakar (pictured above) are Bangladeshi nationals working as construction workers in Singapore. Not their first time here, both work permit holders are seasoned and familiar non-citizens[1] of Singapore with a close and allied network of friends and “family” -- relationships they have forged and accrued over the years.
By Alex Au One afternoon late March 2015, an employer came to Transient Workers Count Too to see if we could help him. "He was almost in tears," said my colleague Russell Heng who devoted more than half an hour lending him a sympathetic ear. He was a contractor with over a hundred workers, but he
By Daniel Ling “Driver put all my baju (clothes) in bag, tell me, ‘Boss say, tomorrow go Bangladesh for two month. [If] you no go, boss work permit cutting’”. Hossen Murad, 26, was still recovering from a serious workplace injury. Amid mounting medical bills here, his employer had sought to pressure him into returning to
By Keith Wong Hossain feels vindicated. He came out of a meeting at the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday with a 'settlement paper' signed by his employer in which is stated that he will be paid his salary arrears no later than a week from now. The amount of approximately $5,700 is also more or less
