Non-TWC2 activity: media interest
Transient Workers' Count Too's Work Fatigue survey (see here for more about the study) was featured in Today newspaper on 6 May 2017. As often is the case in Singapore, the story leads with a headline ("Firms which don’t give workers enough rest taken to task: MOM") and a response from the government claiming that
The difficulties faced by foreign workers in Singapore seeking alternative jobs -- even when permitted to do so by the Ministry of Manpower -- were highlighted in a story in The New Paper 24 March 2017. The focus was on the men from HBB Engineering and related company C-Plus Engineering, featured in our post MOM
42 delighted men received 3G phones from Transient Workers Count Too 21 March 2017. It was the first of a series of phone distribution events that has been planned in advance of the cessation of 2G signals throughout Singapore on 1 April 2017. The remaining batches of eligible migrant workers will be getting their 3G phones over
The Straits Times reporter met with the men on Thursday 2 March 2017. We thought the story would be out around the weekend, but the newspaper didn't have enough space. Parliament was sitting and debating the budget; space in the Home section was at a premium. The story was the kind that we at Transient
Transient Workers Count Too and the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) submitted a joint shadow report to the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW) on Bangladesh. It was submitted via the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. This
Islam Rafiqul and Sujan Ahmed were downcast when they first approached TWC2 for help. But by the time they went back to Bangladesh, their faith in Singaporeans was fully restored, thanks to the Straits Times and Give.asia -- a crowdfunding platform for people in need. In Rafiqul's case, he had won a Labour Court case,
Islam Rafiqul's case was highlighted in a full-page story in the Straits Times 19 January 2017. Headlined "Labour Court can't make employer pay", it described this Bangladeshi worker's plight, having been owed over $7,363 in unpaid wages. His case went through the usual channels at the Ministry of Manpower, resulting in him winning a Labour
For a few years now, Transient Workers Count Too has been asked to give a talk to journalists gathered at the annual Asia Journalism Fellowship. The following videos are adapted from the talk that Alex Au gave on 8 September 2016. There were about 20 journalists in TWC2's Dayspace, from various Asian countries, Pakistan to
The New York Times has an exposé on Step Up Marine, a manning agency operating out of Singapore's Chinatown, and its network of recruiters in neighbouring countries. Young men are deceived and entrapped into horrendously abusive jobs on fishing trawlers, including Eril Andrade who died at sea. Court papers in the Philippines point the finger clearly
Buried within a news story in the Sunday Times (More foreign workers seek help over wage woes, 14 June 2015) was this sentence: Next year, employers must issue itemised payslips and provide written key employment terms, to prevent salary disputes, MOM said. A check at the ministry's website does not indicate any recent announcement on
