Employment agents, agent fees
2
12, 2025
Parliamentary questions, September 2025, part 1
Many questions from MPs: about primary healthcare, kickbacks, working without work passes and the Household Services Scheme.
27
11, 2025
Leaving to save ourselves
We conducted an online survey of non-domestic workers from Myanmar in July and August 2025 to understand their recruitment experiences.
16
11, 2025
Our comments on MOM’s migrant worker survey 2024, part 2 (recruitment and retention)
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.
31
10, 2025
Seven joyless workers, part 2
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.
29
09, 2025
Learning the lines for showtime
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.
19
09, 2025
Foolish questions
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!
2
09, 2025
The rocky road to a transfer
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?
30
08, 2025
Fog and minefields
(Mis)information given to migrant workers before they decide to take up a job, inability to ask the right questions, reliance on agents can lay the ground for serious difficulties after they start work.
30
07, 2025
Going international: Singapore’s toothless laws
A recruiter goes onto Facebook to publicise his scheme to hire low-wage workers in violation of Singapore law; he seems to have nothing to fear.
19
07, 2025
Laundromat city
Construction worker Domog faces a host of problems, of which his agent fee is not top of mind, but nonetheless we ask him to detail the payments he has had to make.