Our laws invest employers with a lot of power over foreign workers. But laws also give workers rights, Bosses can be so intoxicated with power, they get carried away.
Kumar speaks English fluently and he, of all people, should be able to interact with MOM directly over his injury claim, but he still engages a lawyer. Why?
Made to work twice as many overtime hours as permitted by law, paid less than half his entitled salary, yet options for recourse were all pretty bad.
Ten years of loyal service counted for nothing when Arsad got injured. The law that requires employers to support injured workers doesn't mean much either.
As soon as the lockdown was lifted, Azom's employer reverted from electronic payment of salary to cash. What was the motive?
In a split second, a worker's life is turned upside down. It is too easy for employers to simply abandon their injured workers.
Baying for blood is easy. Looking unflinchingly at how regulatory policies and priorities contributed to the torture and killing of a domestic worker would be more positive.
The killing of a domestic worker behind closed doors must compel us to reckon with the concept of live-in domestic help. Live-out arrangements have many benefits.
This documentary about human trafficking may be about Kuwait but the specific factors enabling the problem have parallels in Singapore too. Don't be smug.
If paying medical bills made the employer furious, the prospect of having to pay injury compensation called for more drastic measures. Send worker home!
