By Kan Ren Jie On 23 June 2016, Ataus Samad Rifat, 28, was suddenly fired from his job. "Go back home. Your work permit has been cancelled. We have already bought ticket." The ‘madam’ (the female administrative staff) at his office then proceeded to take his work permit from him. That was how Ataus described
Most interns who spend 6 - 9 weeks with TWC2 are asked to wrap up their internship with an essay on a specific topic. Moe spent April and May 2016 with us assisting with casework and the Cuff Road Project. In the process, he came across many foreign workers who had lost their jobs either
By Aruj Shukla It has long been a well-known fact that migrant workers in Singapore need to pay an exorbitant amount of money as agent fees to the middlemen based in their respective home countries. Stories about the possibility of the employers colluding with the agent and taking a sizeable cut from the agent fees
This case was first covered in the story Four workers allege employer made them pay for their jobs, MOM investigating. That was based on an interview in December 2015 soon after a group of men had lodged complaints at the Ministry of Manpower. In this subsequent interview, conducted on 8 March 2016, one of the
By Ranjana Raghunathan At TWC2's Cuff Road Project, a group of five workers, three Indian and two Bangladeshi, catch my attention. They seem to know each other, and have come to enroll themselves in the free meal program together. Upon questioning a little, I learn that they, along with four other workers, faced issues
By Jas Talukder Joynal approaches me hesitantly, yet he does not strike me as a man of low self-esteem. Clad in a brightly coloured checkered shirt, with a good trendy fit, he definitely cares about his appearance. His face is one that has not yet been marked with the hardships of life and I am a little
This is the opinion piece by John Gee of Transient Workers Count Too, published in the Straits Times, 3 December 2014. ---- A win-win way to help injured foreign workers The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is considering outsourcing the inspection of workplaces to counter the illegal employment of foreign workers, a task that currently involves
Here's is an op-ed by TWC2's John Gee that was published in the Straits Times on Wednesday 3 December 2014: A win-win way to help injured foreign workers By John Gee. Straits Times, 3 December 2014 The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is considering outsourcing the inspection of workplaces to counter the illegal employment of foreign
Continued from Part 1. This second part of the JS Metal saga shows up defects in the Ministry of Manpower's processes. From the many cases that TWC2 has seen, it appears that these defects spring mainly from the heroic assumption that when a case of salary non-payment or underpayment arises, it's a "labour relations" dispute
Continued from part 3. TWC2 stayed in contact off and on with the four men from JS Metal Pte Ltd through the months following the lodging of their claims at the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). For a while they had some work, all at temporary jobs "make furniture" with Delco Art Interior Decoration, located at Kallang
