The same evening that volunteer Liang Lei was doing interviews for his story Why do injured workers flee company housing and do they feel safe enough to return?, two other workers came to TWC2 with housing-related woes. But their stories also shine a light on the way employers try to bully workers into submission. Borhan
Most foreign workers in the construction industry are in their twenties. Volunteer Jeremy Xiao met a older man in January 2019, who spoke to him about the weight of his family responsibility and the struggle to land a job. Yet, some experiences are all the same whether for younger workers or older ones --
At a Parliamentary sitting on 12 February 2019, Nominated member of Parliament Anthea Ong asked the Minister for Manpower this question: What was the value of unpaid salaries in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively, according to the orders made by the Employment Claims Tribunal on employers to pay owed salaries. Mrs Josephine Teo, Manpower
By intern Ada Cheong The past few weeks have frustrated me in my search for an elusive piece of paper in Singapore. Nobody seems to have a physical copy of it. And much like a mythical creature, it evades photography. Does it even exist? If seeing is believing, I must admit: I have not
By Grace Chua, based on an interview in August 2018 It has been three months since Rahman Mostafizur filed a salary claim with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). Having started work in March 2017, he was dismayed to note that his salary was unilaterally reduced throughout the fourteen months of employment. Before joining Kah Development
We first featured Raju in the story To encash two cheques, Raju had to jump through hoops, which was about his last three days before going home. Prior to that, he was having difficulty getting due settlement of his injury compensation claim and this story below is about an incident during that period. -- By
By Mohamed Kasshif, based on an interview in September 2018 “Boss say, don’t worry, still can work”; Zobayar explains the reply he got from his employer upon realising that his work permit had been revoked without notice. It’s been two months since he last received his salary and now he lost his work permit, making
In Singapore, we rarely see workers who have worked in the Middle East before coming here. Why that is so probably involves complex reasons outside the scope of this article. Shakil is the unusual one. He spent five years in Dubai before coming to Singapore. We seize the opportunity to ask him to describe his
By Katia Barthelemy, based on an interview in August 2018 Each migrant worker’s story is unique. Yet, in all the stories we hear at TWC2, we can detect injustice, lack of respect, abuse, illegal treatment or a combination of them. Miah Mohammad Ratan, like most migrant workers in Singapore, started his journey out of Bangladesh
Part 6: where we are now And that’s where we are at this moment. The In-Principle Approval for a Work permit ("IPA" -- explained in footnote) has travelled a long way, beginning life as a simple document that merely informed prospective migrant workers that a legitimate Work Permit awaited them in Singapore, together with basic
