By Jiang Haolie Molla Shohid will be put on a flight back to his village of Bhouria Challa in Bangladesh any day now. He does not know if he will be compensated for the promised wages that never materialised. He is not even sure of the day of the flight. His boss has kept him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6f1FP_EgZU By Gek Han “Please Singapore government, please change the system, and I will come here again to work.” When Hossain returns to Bangladesh, he will try to find work in South Korea, rather than Singapore. Before coming to Singapore in 2013, Hossain tried to find employment in South Korea, because the South Korean
Journalist Toh Yong Chuan had a short op-ed on page 2 of the Straits Times 24 Jan 2017 following his two reports of workers who could not collect on their Labour Court awards. See these stories on Islam Rafiqul and Sujan Ahmed. He argued that it was important to plug the gap in the law,
Islam Rafiqul's case was highlighted in a full-page story in the Straits Times 19 January 2017. Headlined "Labour Court can't make employer pay", it described this Bangladeshi worker's plight, having been owed over $7,363 in unpaid wages. His case went through the usual channels at the Ministry of Manpower, resulting in him winning a Labour
By Isaac Ong In April 2016, 36 year-old Wahed M A was in hospital recovering from a left eye surgery, hoping to return to work to support his wife and three children back home in Bangladesh. Unbeknownst to him, his worries were far from over. In the coming months, he would be refused payment for
Starting basic salaries for first-time workers from India and Bangladesh have remained more or less static since 2006, averaging slightly under Singapore dollars 600 per month. However, when adjusted for inflation, a downward trend is seen, and thus, in terms of Singapore purchasing power, average basic salaries have declined about 20% since 2006. The above
Following news that accelerated pay increases for cleaner will be implemented, but only for local employees, Transient Workers Count Too wrote to the Straits Times. On 16 December 2016, our letter was published. Consider raising pay of foreign cleaners, too Foreign visitors often comment on how clean Singapore is, perhaps not appreciating that there is
Volunteers at TWC2 were alarmed to hear from Sohel Rana, in mid July 2016, that the Assistant Commissioner of Labour presiding over his Labour Court case might be planning to rule in a manner contrary to written law. It would seriously undermine his claim and set an extremely bad precedent. Md Sohel Rana's case had
"The police was at the gate of the shipyard that day, checking all workers arriving at work," Nagelli Mahendar Reddy tells TWC2. "I think someone had informed them that there were illegal workers." Unfortunately, Nagelli was one of the 'illegals'. He did not have a work permit. He and a few others from the same
Most interns who spend 6 - 9 weeks with TWC2 are asked to wrap up their internship with an essay on a specific topic. Rebecca spent her mid-year vacation 2016 with us assisting with casework and the Labour Court Research Project. In the process, she came across many foreign workers who had suffered salary non-payment or
