By Charmaine Yap On the very first day of our 3-week internship at TWC2, Alex told us most emphatically that we would need to “step out of our middle class mindset and assumptions”. That thought particularly stuck with me. Thinking back now, I doubt I had really understood then what he had meant by that,
By John Gee The annual report for 2012 of the Occupational Safety and Health Division (link to Part 1, Part 2), released in March 2013, ("OSHD Report") showed that the number of workplace deaths had fallen to 56, its lowest level in nine years. However, the total number of injuries had risen over ten per
By Keith W He waves to me while I am standing in the ATM line. He looks familiar but I can't place him. Guessing that I am having some difficulty remembering him, he approaches me to re-introduce himself. "You not remember me? My name Esan*," he says. "Last time I have injury problem, and I
Continued from Dulal faced problems on all fronts, none of his own making Laymen think that polygraph tests can reliably establish the veracity of a person’s statement and detect his lies. Perhaps those old movies of the polygraph pen gyrating wildly on the chart and the suspect shouting out his confession, convinced that it’s futile to
On the morning of 29 September 2012 as he was about to start work, Dulal Abdul Hai found a crowd gathering to watch a fight between an Indian lorry driver and a Bangladeshi welder. Without pausing to consider the reason for the fight, he made the risky decision to intervene and pull the two men
By Ashley Loh “Step out of your middle-class mentality” — this was one of the first few things said to us on our first day of attachment. My experience with TWC2 has definitely opened my eyes to a world that was rather different from my own. I was given many opportunities to meet people and
By Shri Devvi Elangovan This past holiday season signifies, for most of us, a special time, being able to spend some quality time with our family and loved ones. And along with the start of 2014, we celebrate the International Year of the Family to foster stronger family bonds. But there are some -- the
Whenever we have a new story about a worker, we tend to put a link to it on TWC2's Facebook wall. Most of our stories tell about workers' experience with salary defaults or the frustrations that follow a workplace injury. Once in a while, we see a comment by a reader on our Facebook wall
By Nicholas Kam Migrant workers are not that different from us. While they are not Singaporeans or permanent residents and hence do not enjoy certain rights and privileges, they are human beings, and, like most of us, simply wish to earn enough to at least support their families.To subject them to grossly unfair conditions borders
By Joyce Wong Pitchai Murugesan rolls up his right sleeve and shows us a long surgical scar running from his upper arm down to below the elbow. I estimate it to about 20-30cm long. He has suffered nerve damage: his little finger stays bent and he has difficulties exerting strength in his grip. Occasionally, he
