By Kan Ren Jie For many Singaporean employees, it would be unthinkable for our employers to stop paying our monthly salaries. Many of us are accustomed (and excited!) to see our bank balance increase every month like clockwork. However, this basic confidence is denied to many foreign workers. My conversations with two men, Ali Abbas
KT Mesdorm Pte Ltd, the operator of a purpose-built dormitory in the Boon Lay area was recently fined $300,000 for having more than the permitted number of workers living there. Mesdorm pleaded guilty to 30 charges. It is the first dorm operator to be so prosecuted, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in a press
Three recent posts here at this site demonstrate that employers continue to try to forcibly repatriate foreign workers, despite workers having unresolved salary claims or untreated injuries. This practice inflicts a great injustice on them. The failure of the authorities to stop it can only lead to speculation about conscious neglect. Mark Lamb has an eye-witness account of
By Eugene Teo On the evening of 19 October 2015, Huq Md Mynul showed up at our free meals programme. He was running a fever and had all the signs of chicken pox over his face and body. But he was also homeless. Transient Workers Count Too immediately put him into our emergency shelter. This
"Boss say I must not talking (tell others) how I accident," Alam recounts of the first hours after his forearm was torn open. "He say I must explain like this: (that) I go canteen to makan (eat), and I fall down there." "He tell other workers, nobody must talking." But when Alam Mahbubul finally got
By Ranjana Raghunathan I ask Balasubramanian Mangaleswaran if he requested for medical treatment from his employer right after injuring his leg. He replies, “I asked them immediately, they just said that they would not pay for it.” He was told, “you must take care of it yourself.” This is against the law (see box at
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 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 Shona Loong It is a sunny Saturday morning, and I am having a coffee with Jamail—a 32-year old Bangladeshi migrant—in a kopitiam on Veerasamy Road. As we talk, I can sense the uncle at the next table sneaking glances at us. Surely this is a curious sight: there are other Singaporean women and Bangladeshi
When workers first approach TWC2 for help, an experienced volunteer would run through a checklist of questions with him. We do this because even though workers are quite able to describe the particular problem they need help with, they may not realise that there are other issues that require attention. For example, a worker who has
