By Liang Lei “I tired already”, was Sumon’s reply to why he chose not to continue pursuing his case, despite a settlement that will only entitle him to S$11,000. That’s half of the amount he believes is owed to him by his employer. Sumon has not seen his family for six years since his move to
By Darren Oei Rama, a forty-ish Indian national, comes up to TWC2 volunteer Alex, giving him an update to his case. Alex nods and says "Good, that's good," though I can't make sense of what Rama is saying. Then for some reason, Rama turns to me and continues telling me his good news, but he
Street scene, Dhaka Rakib and Kanak don't know each other, but both come on the same day to Transient Workers Count Too with similar stories. The chief similarity was that they both had borrowed from Brac Bank whose branches and billboards can be seen all over Bangladesh. This bank is a major loan-maker
Rahman Habibur complains that he has been short-paid for well over a year. It is not immediately obvious when one looks at his payslips. They appear very clearly drawn up. But closer examination reveals that he has a case. Habibur, together with workmate Uddin Jashim, figured in an earlier story Construction worker says he was asked
By Bill Poorman “No work.” Those were the worst possible words that Masud could have heard. Like all foreign workers, he had come to Singapore to put in long hours and make a better life. In Singapore, he could earn a higher income than in his home country of Bangladesh. But when he arrived here in September of
By Namgay Choden Hasan Mohammad Suman’s left thumb was injured December 2016 when it was jammed between steel bars at his worksite. It is late February now as I speak with him. He is scheduled to have surgery tomorrow at Ng Teng Fong Hospital in Jurong East. However, for the surgery to go ahead, he has to present
L-R: Minarul, Bayazid and Soroardi By Sean Yee In Parliament on 6 February 2017, Manpower minister Lim Swee Say said, "MOM received about 9,000 salary-related claims involving some 4,500 employers in 2016. So, 9,000 claims; 4,500 employers. Through mediation by MOM and adjudication by the Labour Court, we have been able to resolve
Singapore is so short of labour that a well-known taxi company has been relying on construction workers to run its vehicle workshops. They are asked to clean the taxis, but also "do gearbox repair," says Uddin Jashim, 31, a former worker there. Your writer asks him, with some concern, "Do you know how to repair
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
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
