By Tristan Powell-Odden, based on an interview in December 2017 Despite being in pain from an injury, Shariful had to look for new accommodation and worry about how to pay for it. Housing issues shouldn't have to complicate an injured worker's life, but they do. Shariful's job was to blast paint from steel surfaces of
By Jiang Zhi Feng, based on an interview in November 2017 “Fall down how?” a concerned Miah asked his company’s supervisor about precariousness of mending a pipe two metres above ground without a safety hook. His supervisor replied, “Nothing one. No problem. Can do,” directing him to carry out orders. On 22 September 2017, Miah
Saiful shows us the wrist which has a steel implant By Tan Yen Seow, based on an interview in November 2017 Islam Saiful, 32, is my first interviewee at TWC2. He is a Bangladeshi national who has been working in Singapore on a Work Permit for the past ten years. Judging from his
By Jiang Zhi Feng, based on an interview in October 2017 For ten years as a Bangladeshi migrant worker in Singapore, Hossain Awlad has only been back home three times. He misses home. He misses his wife, his mother, and his relatives. The last time he saw them was in 2013. He calls his wife
Video by Jonathan Ang, August 2017 Hosen Khalilur's experience is typical of the cases that come to Transient Workers Count Too. After sustaining a back injury at work and being placed on medical leave, company officials make it difficult for him to stay on in company accommodation. In Hosen's case, he tells us in the
Many injured workers, after leaving their dorms, find bunk space in Little India The law as to who is responsible for workers' accommodation is a dustball of words. The exact meaning is fuzzy and can be squeezed every which way. In practice however, the words are largely rendered moot. Employers have their own requirements
By Jiang Zhi Feng, based on an interview in October 2017 After Rana Masum approached a lawyer to lodge an injury compensation claim, he found his Work Permit cancelled by his employer. Not long after, his boss wanted him to move out of his current dormitory, Westlite Dormitory at Toh Guan in Jurong East and
Sumon speaking with the volunteer writer By Liang Lei, based on an interview in August 2017 Sometimes, when it comes to foreign workers, it is both worrying and terrifying to realize just how much they are at the mercy of the employers, in an environment of lax enforcement and subdued consequences. Drastic measures
Transient Workers Count Too joined with 12 other NGOs in Singapore to submit a joint shadow report to the United Nations Committee on Cedaw (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women) for the upcoming periodic review of Singapore. The joint report highlights a number of issues pertaining to foreign domestic workers
By Jonah Foong, based on interviews in July 2017 In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the fictional land of Oceania is ruled by Big Brother, a man of ‘about forty-five’ with a ‘heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features’. While his face is plastered on hoardings, he is never seen in the flesh, and his
