"So many years, I not sick," says Mollah Jahangir, 35. "One time have problem only, boss quickly want to send me home." This employer enjoyed loyalty from his worker for eight years, but showed none in return. Mollah Jahangir worked as a grass cutter and occasional water pipe fixer for CPK Contractor Pte Ltd, one
Buried within a press release by the Ministry of Manpower dated 19 June 2014, and titled Computer firm director charged for false declaration of salaries, was a paragraph pertaining to the Woolim case that TWC2 highlighted in earlier articles. The paragraph provides a conclusion to the case, saying: More recently on 17 June 2014, Woolim
A letter by Debbie Fordyce of TWC2 was published in the print section of the Straits Times 17 July 2014. It was a follow-on to a letter by Migrant Workers' Centre, which in turn was a response to an article by Radha Basu in the Sunday Times of 6 July. --- Why foreign workers are
About one in three migrant workers are not paid what they are due, a survey by Transient Workers Count Too has found. However, even as two-thirds think they are correctly paid, about half of them actually have no means to verify that that is so. Only one in three foreign workers can be sure that
"COI into Little India riot suggests sensible and practical ways to improve their lives " says the subheader to a column by journalist Radha Basu in the Sunday Times of 6 July 2014. The article focussed on the recommendations contained in the Report of the Committee of Inquiry (into the recent riot) to improve the situation
In her column published 6 July 2014 in the Sunday Times, Radha Basu highlighted the fact that many foreign workers in Singapore are still being paid at the ridiculous rate of $2 per hour. In preparing her article, she was provided evidence of this by Transient Workers Count Too, in the form of a pay
What's it like to live and work in Doha as a migrant worker? Jennifer and Steve Parenteau lived in Doha for six years, not as migrant workers but as expats, with some of the privileges such a life affords. As Jennifer says, "We were allowed to walk on the Corniche (the wharf) any time we
By Nguyen Minh Quan Unlike injury cases, workers' complaints about salary and deductions usually don’t take more than a few months. However, Bangladeshi national Badal, 34, has been in limbo for ten months. His case probably won’t be settled soon. The longer the process is, the more difficult it will be to collect evidence from
A director of a construction company was fined $20,000 for taking money from his foreign workers. Demanding and accepting such kickbacks is illegal. Lin Pinghe 54, took the money from twenty workers from China in 2011, reported the Straits Times in its story on 3 June 2014 (pictured above). He pleaded guilty at the hearing.
By Peter Looker Polash has no passport. He can't go home. "My boss, he say passport lost." His previous boss at Timberlux International Pte Ltd claimed not to have the passport. “Boss alibaba,” Polash alleges, using the shorthand term widely understood among migrant workers to mean 'untruthful'. What led up to this dispute has been written in
