Here is another shipyard worker, with a recruitment fee story like many others, except that the details show how involved the employer was in the fee negotiations.
It first began with the employer cutting out the agent (to the worker's advantage), but it actually was a sign that the employer couldn't be trusted to honour the contract.
A migrant employee at a midprice restaurant recounts the many things that made the job unbearable: salary violations, long hours, and the cook.
Many questions from MPs: about primary healthcare, kickbacks, working without work passes and the Household Services Scheme.
We conducted an online survey of non-domestic workers from Myanmar in July and August 2025 to understand their recruitment experiences.
A large number of employers in MOM's 2024 survey reported using recruitment channels strongly associated with excessive fees and kickbacks. Time to stop denying how dirty our recruitment landscape is.
Seven workers recruited by the extended family of a husband-and-wife couple based in Singapore paid $9,000 each to get jobs jere. Big salaries promised, then stopped altogether.
A Bangladeshi welder paid $3,400 to get a shipyard job. No receipts given, he says. Then he had to memorise some lines to say in front of the camera, and to express deep gratitude.
A first-time construction worker from Bangladesh walks us through the months in which he prepared for a working life in Singapore. He spent 15 months in preparation. His working life was 6 months. We haven't even mentioned money!
Workers with salary claims would typically be in financial distress; they need to move into new jobs quickly without first having to go home. The COE letter is supposed to help them. Does it?
