By Sabrina Tay He held his index finger out next to mine and the difference was stark. Rubel’s finger was deformed, the nail shorter than what it should have been and the flesh at his fingertip warped. “Can you feel anything?” I asked as I gently touched his finger. “Cannot feel, no pain, no feeling”
Jolovan Wham, Executive Director of fellow migrant-worker NGO, the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) posted on his Facebook page the news that the Singapore Medical Council is holding a disciplinary tribunal over two doctors. TWC2's clients have reported very similar experiences: severe injuries, yet given only one or two days' medical leave. Workers
By Keith Wong "For toilet, must go very far," is how Syful Md Siddiqur Rahman puts it. "How far is far?" I ask. "Go into the jungle?" "No jungle there," he explains. "Go other corner [of] site. Very big site." Syful is describing his living conditions and the sanitation arrangements he has to put up
This is the opinion piece by John Gee of Transient Workers Count Too, published in the Straits Times, 3 December 2014. ---- A win-win way to help injured foreign workers The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is considering outsourcing the inspection of workplaces to counter the illegal employment of foreign workers, a task that currently involves
TWC2 volunteer Meera Rajah assisted a worker as he struggled to sort out his injury case after having things messed up by a law firm. This is Meera's detailed account of how the mess came about and what she had to do to help him. It shines a spotlight into an area not often discussed:
By Isabel Chew Aktaruzzaman is intent on telling me his story. His cellphone rings a number of times during our interview but he rejects them because it is more important that people hear his story. On 23 July, Aktar and a co-worker were moving a 6-inch pipe weighing (by his estimate) 60 kg when his
By Elizabeth Zhou Continued from Part 1. That night, Homun went out for a walk to clear his head. And as it was with Kamal’s plot, someone was following him – once again, he was Indian. He recognized him as the building’s security. Would he be told he would be sent home as soon as
By Elizabeth Zhou Getting injured is a foreign worker’s greatest nightmare. Monday, 5 May 2014. The evening was humid. Sweat gathered on his forehead and trickled down his side-burns. Homun adjusted his helmet and readied himself for a bit more work. It was almost time to go home. Then he plunged three metres, and found
By Sonia Pillai “Family just cry," says Mahbub, 26, of their helplessness after learning of his injury. "Now everything cannot. My cousin, my uncle, my friend borrow (he means 'lent') me money, I cannot give back.” He had borrowed $8,000 to pay his agent for this job. It's been two whole years since. A fall
By Benjamin Wong The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) website states that for a worker to claim under the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA), "the employee only needs to prove that he was injured in a work accident ..." (emphasis added by TWC2). In reality, many workers have difficulty even meeting this supposedly simple condition, because
