Forgotten and forsaken Bangladeshi workers

The following article was posted on The Online Citizen (http://theonlinecitizen.com) on 30 Jan 2009. For the full story, including images and links, please log on to:
URL: http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/01/forgotten-and-forsaken/

Forgotten and forsaken
Friday, 30 January 2009
Story by Andrew Loh / Pictures by Mervin Lee & Kenneth Tham

On 22 January, the Straits Times carried a report headlined, “Workers move out of Tagore dormitory”. It reported that the dormitory at 468 Tagore Industrial Avenue, which housed several hundred Bangladeshi workers, had been “cleared out” after the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) had found it to be “non-compliant”. The men were moved to a dormitory at Seletar Farmway, the report said.

On 24 January, a group of Singaporeans, who called themselves “Friends In Charity”, was giving out foodstuff to migrant workers at Desker Road in Little India. The members told The Online Citizen (TOC) that they are professionals, executives and ordinary Singaporeans who just wanted to provide help to those in need. Migrant workers were just one of the groups they were helping. As the afternoon wore on, more foreign workers came to collect the handouts.

Shajul, one of the volunteers, then introduced me to a group of 12 Bangladeshi workers who was also there for the foodstuff. I recognized some of the faces in that group, I thought. Then I realized that I had met them at the dormitory at 468 Tagore Industrial Estate – the very same dormitory which the Straits Times reported on. Why were these workers there at Little India, I wondered. They should be at Seletar Farmway.

As I spoke to them, I learned that although most of the workers at 468 had been moved to Seletar, some of them (30, I am told), were not. I asked why. The workers told me that those who went to Seletar were from a different company, Gates Offshore and Goldrich Venture, while they were from PA Services. I was bewildered to learn of this. I asked where they were staying. They told me that they were living in hostels in Little India. As I probed further, I learned that they were given $210 each and were asked to look for their own lodging for the next 21 days. “Why 21 days?” I asked. They explained that MOM had given them 21 days to look for a new employer. Failing that, they would be sent home.

The special pass issued to them expires on 12 February and they are desperate to find a new employer.

The $210 went to paying for the hostel, which cost them $8 to $10 each per day. They would have no money for anything else, including food. That was why they were at Desker Road for the handouts from Friends In Charity. “Only sleeping money,” Israfil, 25, told me. “Makan money no give,” he added. (“Makan” is Malay for “eat” or “food”.)

I wondered how they were going to find an employer on their own, given that they do not know Singapore very well, cannot speak English and do not even have money for transport.

As I was speaking with the workers from 468, I was informed that another group of Bangladeshi workers were there as well for the handouts – this group was from a dormitory in Geylang, Lorong 31. They told me of their situation and urged me to visit their dorm. (Their story, which included an encounter I had with their supervisor late in the night, will be in a separate report.)

Thus began a night of visiting their quarters – and seeing the squalid conditions they were subjected to.

Little India
Israfil, 25, from 468, explained to me that there were 30 of them staying in various hostels in Little India. He offered to show me where they lived. They have been in Singapore for seven months and were supposed to work in the shipyards – but they have not been given any work. The men had asked MOM to allow them to do other kinds of work, other than in the shipyards but MOM rejected this appeal, they told me. Their work permit only allows them to work in the shipyards. “We can do other jobs like cleaning, catering, sundry shops,” Shoel Mahmud, 19, said. “I asked MOM any work also can,” added Israfil, “but MOM no give.” He did not understand why MOM would reject this.

MOM, however, has put them on the TJS – Temporary Job Scheme – where the workers could work for other employers. The problem with this, the men explained, is that there are many unemployed workers on the scheme. MOM has also told them to go to the ministry building every Friday so that prospective employers could employ them. “Nobody take,” Israfil said. “They come take 4 people, 5 people. Other no take. No job.” Even if they were “taken” by the employers, they would be hired on a day to day basis and be paid a daily-rated salary. For these 468 workers, they would have only two or three Fridays to find an employer through the TJS.

They have also gone for interviews with various shipyards, arranged by MOM, but they have not been successful. “The interview is just a show,” Israfil said. “They don’t give work.”

As we arrived at the first dormitory, I was led up a very narrow stairway. At the top of the stairs, a single door. Open that and all you see is an even narrower hallway, parting four rooms – two on each side. The floor is dirty, the walls stained, and there is a rather metallic smell in the air. I asked Israfil what that was. “Kill bugs,” he said. He explained that anti-bacteria, anti-bug sprays are used each day to get rid of the pests. Hence, the odour. I wondered about toxicity and how they could sleep at night with such odour.

As I entered one of the rooms, the first thing you notice is how cramped it was. The room measured, as far as I could estimate, about 4m by 5m. In that small space, three double-decker beds were in place, allowing six men to sleep in them. Out of curiosity, I asked how many men slept in there. “Eight,” Israfil smiled and told me. Two men would sleep on the floor.

There were no cupboards or drawers for their belongings, something which I have observed in all the dormitories – even those which held hundreds of men. There were no windows for ventilation, resulting in damp and stale air in the rooms.

There was one toilet shared by all, and one shower, also shared by everyone. Both of them were in atrocious conditions.

As we left to visit another dormitory around the area where the rest of the men were staying, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps these men were better off being left at 468, Tagore Industrial Estate, bad as that dormitory was.

But to their credit, the men did not complain about their living conditions.

They just wanted to work – but seemed to have been forgotten and forsaken by their employer, after having paid thousands of dollars to come to Singapore.

'They serve up vice right on doorstep of workers' dorms '

The following article was published in the New Paper on 26 Jan 2009.

They serve up vice right on doorstep of workers' dorms
26 January 2009
The New Paper

CALL it sex on delivery.

The foreign workers living in their quarters at Yishun Avenue 6 do not need to travel far for sex.

The women, also foreign nationals, go to their doorstep in cabs and then boldly solicit business just outside the quarters.

Scantily clad and caked in make-up, they wait in groups for workers to approach them. Nearby, their pimps stand and wait.

The current trend is a clear departure from the way illegal vice operators used to conduct business.

Then, they would usually set up makeshift brothels deep in forested areas and take clients there.

Surprised
Last March, police raided a vice den in the nearby forested area at Yishun and rounded up eight men and 13 women.

Now, the vice operators are back, and are perhaps more audacious than ever.
Their women solicit openly, just metres from the dormitory, which is made up of several fenced-up buildings, next to a road that's normally guarded against such intrusions.

On 8 Jan, police and Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officers raided a foreign worker dormitory there. They arrested 53 people, including 14 women.

Those who often visit the dormitories were taken by surprise by this trend.

Madam Lynette Chua, 35, who accompanied her construction supervisor husband to meet a worker inside the dormitory, was shocked by what she saw last weekend.

'It was like a mini-Geylang,' said the homemaker.

She said she saw 40-odd men surrounding 10 to 15 women.

'I thought this kind of thing is done discreetly, not outside, so open,' she said.
She said she had no idea how they got there since there were security guards. She suspected the girls may have had got there by going through the forest.

When The New Paper on Sunday visited the site on Wednesday, the first sign that something fishy was going on was a taxi dropping off four women just outside the dormitory, where a man had been waiting.

They were just 20m from a guard sitting at a gated dirt road leading to the compound.
The four women, with the man, dashed behind the line of trees just outside the fence. They quickly made their way to an entry point about 50m away, and slipped into a dark, unguarded road.

At 9.15pm, two men escorted another woman in. Likewise, the woman and one man darted behind the treeline once they were beyond where the guard was. One man stayed outside, probably as a lookout.

And so they trickled in.

But the real action was in the back.

Groups of scantily dressed women were spotted waiting on the side of the narrow dirt road that runs between the fenced hostels and the jungle that stretches behind it all the way to the waters off Pulau Seletar.

One group of eight sat on a slope, in front of the trees, chatting in a foreign language or smoking.

Once in a while, one would leave with an approaching worker into the darkness of the forest, holding torchlights.

One Bangladeshi worker, who declined to be named, said the prostitutes charge $20 or $30 for their services. They are all Thai, he said.

'They will go inside the jungle, for this thing,' he said.

It can be troublesome, he said, because it can lead to police raids in the area. Because these are run by foreign pimps, he said, it can also spark fights there.

Brazen
Then, around 12.30am, five of the women started leaving. Again, not through the back, but by dashing into a waiting taxi on the main road.
Minutes later, another four did the same, after being led out by a muscular, tattooed man.

When contacted, Mr Chng, 62, the supervisor who runs three of six dorms in the workers' quarters, didn't believe that the women were soliciting brazenly, just metres away from the high fence.

His understanding was that they ply their trade only inside the jungle.

'What I know is that they operate a distance away and are warned not to come near the dormitory,' he said.

He added: 'They sneak in from the tracks (from the canal through the forest).'
He declined to give his full name or the name of his company. He was engaged to manage the dorm by Eng Lam Contractors, one of five companies listed as licensees of the Yishun Avenue 6 workers' dormitory on the Ministry of Manpower website.
He said he heard about the 8 Jan raid from one of his managers and said he had got an angry message from the Housing Development Board (HDB) about it.

He insisted it was 'impossible' for prostitutes to be inside his dorms. He said the dormitories require an access card to enter, with turnstiles. However, he said only the high-fenced areas are part of the dorm - everything else is state land and out of his control, he said.

This includes the dirt road, even though there's a barrier and a security guard stationed in front of it.

He said these were installed 'recently' after complaints by the National Environmental Agency and the HDB about illegal dumping.

'There's really nothing much we can do other than informing the police,' he said.
This is even though he has two guards at every dorm, and two more at the dirt road's entry and exit.

No control
He claimed that this sort of thing happens near workers' dormitories all over Singapore. In the dorm, he has rules like no drugs, no alcohol, and no prostitution.
'But outside, there is no way we can control them,' he said.

Under the law, anybody who solicits for the purpose of prostitution can be fined up to $1,000 or jailed up to six months, or both.

Another dorm asks for frequent police patrols
MR ALI Akbar, 46, the dormitory manager of Simpang Lodge 1, at 2B Yishun Avenue 7, has a security team, but he still prowls the grounds personally.

He also patrols the area about 10m to 20m outside, too.

'Wherever I see a thick growth of vegetation, I will walk through it once a week,' he said.

He does so to find clues of illegal activity.

The former Cisco security officer will go with one of his executives, but if no one is around, he'll go alone. He also has cameras monitoring the forested area.

He said the dormitory houses about 3,600 workers.

He said he works closely with the police. Not only does he ask for frequent patrols in the area, he also invites patrol cars into his compound.

'I want to make the police presence felt to keep the residents on their toes,' he said.

However, he said he has yet to encounter any illegal activity.

Simpang Lodge's marketing executive Wong Liping said it has facilities like a gymnasium, a TV room, a basketball court and even an Internet room. It also has a spacious cooking area.

Having such facilities keeps workers from straying outside.

'In other dorms, they can't cook, so they'll go out and explore... They may not approach girls, but girls may approach them,' she said.

Mr Tan Poo Seng, who owns View Road Worker Dormitory, said his dormitory is very well kept, but admitted he has no control over what goes on outside.

Gambling, drinking, cooking and bringing girls back are all not allowed there.
'We have two guards, one going around, one just outside checking people. No girls can go in,' he said.

Singapore Contractors Association Limited (Scal) executive director Simon Lee said women are generally not allowed in all-male premises and visitors must be registered and screened before being allowed entry.

While prostitutes appearing in workers dormitories in Singapore 'is an issue', he said it is 'not a common issue or regular happening at workers' dormitories that have good security measures'.

He said: 'Sex workers in workers' dormitory happen infrequently, but this could be because of the workers' physical needs. This must be properly managed within the law instead of allowing them to prowl in our neighbourhood residences.'

What can dormitories do to prevent such cases from happening?

He said: 'The dormitories' security system (CCTV, entry passes), guards, patrolling, strict discipline enforcement and working with neighbourhood police to deter such cases would help to prevent such things from happening.'

Copyright 2009, Singapore Press Holdings Limited

Salary arrears double

The following article was published in TODAY on 23 Jan 09.

Salary arrears double
By Ansley Ng 

TODAY
23 January 2009

THE percentage of foreign workers who complained about salary arrears to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) doubled last year.

Of the 757,000 work permit holders in Singapore, 0.4 per cent — or about 3,030 workers — were embroiled in salary spats, compared to 0.2 per cent in 2007.
And the figure may rise as firms grapple with the economic downturn and cash flow problems, Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said yesterday in Parliament.
On average, 85 per cent of cases in the last six months were successfully conciliated within three weeks, he said, although he did not elaborate on the various outcomes.

There are also “early intervention measures” to detect non-payment of salaries, he said in reply to a question from MP Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio GRC) on how many foreign workers were not paid in recent months and what was being done to protect them.

For example, MOM officers conduct audits on firms — 129 in 2007 and 280 last year — for infringement of the Employment Act. The officers check workers’ dormitories to ensure their needs are being met and that they are not facing wage arrears.
“Complex cases could take longer and could involve adjudication by the Labour Court,” said Mr Gan. “The foreign workers involved are allowed to stay in Singapore under a special pass for a short period to enforce their claims.”

Some cases, however, are a result of workers being brought in despite the lack of jobs, according to recent media reports. Mr Gan said there are measures in the pass approval process to “minimise” this. For example, construction and marine companies have to show proof that they have on-going projects before work permits are issued.
Ms Lee also asked about the measures in place to prevent unpaid workers from turning to crime, and what is being doing to protect residents living close to workers’ quarters.

This sense of insecurity, responded Senior Minister of State (Home Affairs) Ho Peng Kee, is based “more on perception than reality”. He said: “The fact is, foreigners generally commit fewer crimes than locals.”

In 2007, the arrest rate for foreigners was 279 per 100,000 population, compared to 456 for locals. The arrest rate for work permit holders was 217 per 100,000 work permit holders. “We should not conclude that foreign workers who have contractual disputes with their employers will turn to crime,” he said. “Indeed, these workers would be familiar with our strict laws.”
(c) 2009. MediaCorp Press Ltd.

Downturn not an excuse for neglect

The following article appeared in the Straits Times on 23 Jan 09.

Downturn not an excuse for neglect
By Melissa Sim
23 January 2009
Straits Times

Manpower Ministry will ensure wages are paid and basic needs are met

BOSSES may be going through tough times, but this does not absolve them from responsibilities towards their foreign workers, Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said yesterday.

These include paying salaries regularly and on time, and providing proper accommodation, food and medical care.

The Manpower Ministry has implemented 'early intervention measures' and stepped up checks and enforcement to ensure salaries are paid, and that other basic needs are being met, he told Parliament.

It will also step in to help workers recover outstanding salaries. With its intervention, most complaints were resolved 'amicably and expeditiously'.

In the past six months, 85 per cent of cases involving foreign workers were dealt with within three weeks, he said, adding that complex cases could take longer.

He was responding to Ms Lee Bee Wah (Ang Mo Kio GRC) who asked about foreign workers who had not been paid, and measures that were being taken to prevent the situation from worsening.

Over the past three months, a significantly higher number of foreign workers had approached the Manpower Ministry for help with salary arrears, Mr Gan said.

The number of work permit holders involved in salary disputes also doubled from 0.2 per cent of all work permit holders in 2007 to about 0.4 per cent last year.

And of the 26 employers prosecuted for Employment Act violations last year, 14 were involved in salary disputes.

Mr Gan said the ministry now monitors employers who default on levy payments - the amount they pay the Government for hiring foreign workers. It also works with housing operators to gather information on bosses who default on their rental payments.

This helps identify those who are in financial difficulty and therefore could be at risk of defaulting on salary payments, he added.

To prevent foreign workers from being brought into Singapore without jobs, the ministry also takes steps at the work pass approval process.

Construction and marine companies, for instance, must show documentary proof that they have ongoing projects before work permits are issued. For sub-contractors, an endorsement of work is needed from their principal contractor.

Mr Gan said his ministry also stepped up scrutiny in processing work permit applications by firms in the marine sector.

While he did not elaborate on why this sector had been highlighted, reports on the non-payment of salaries in recent months involved firms in the marine sector.

Still, Mr Gan was quick to add that increased scrutiny was being done in 'a calibrated way so that we do not create rigidity and inconvenience for the majority of lawful and responsible employers'.

'We recognise that in a volatile business situation, some employers may suddenly find that projects they had planned for their workers are delayed or cancelled,' he said.

'In such situations, companies may not have work for their foreign workers. If so, the work permit condition requires the employer to terminate the contracts and facilitate the repatriation of their workers to their home country after ensuring that all outstanding employment issues have been resolved.'

The ministry will continue to monitor the situation closely, step up enforcement, and tighten checks if necessary.

He reiterated that foreign workers are still needed in some sectors to do jobs that Singaporeans shun or are unable to do.

To a separate question from Ms Lee on foreign workers committing crimes here, Senior Minister of State (Law and Home Affairs) Ho Peng Kee said that they generally committed fewer crimes than locals.

The notion that unemployed foreign workers will turn to crime to support themselves is 'based more on perception rather than reality'.

In 2007, the arrest rate for Singapore residents was 456 per 100,000 Singapore residents, he said.

The rate for foreigners was 279, while the rate for work permit holders was 217 per 100,000 work permit holders.

(c) 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

'Number of foreign worker disputes over salary doubled in 2008'

The following article was posted on Channel NewsAsia on 22 Jan 09.

Number of foreign worker disputes over salary doubled in 2008
22 January 2009
Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE: The number of foreign workers involved in salary disputes doubled last year.

Revealing the statistics in Parliament, Acting Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said the percentage of foreign work permit holders involved in such disputes rose from about 0.2 per cent in 2007 to about 0.4 per cent in 2008.

In an oral answer to a question from Member of Parliament for Ang Mo Kio GRC Lee Bee Wah, Mr Gan said his ministry had seen a significant increase in the number of workers seeking help with salary arrears over the past three months.

He said the numbers could rise further as more companies face cash-flow problems during this recession. Hence, the Manpower Ministry has stepped up enforcement and mediation efforts, Mr Gan told the House.

These include more inspections at foreign workers' dormitories and keeping tabs on employers who default on their dormitory rental payments, as these employers are also likely to face problems paying their workers' salaries.

Most salary disputes have been resolved amicably and expeditiously, said Mr Gan, with 85 per cent of cases over the past six months dealt with within three weeks.

Mr Gan also told the House that 26 employers were prosecuted last year for Employment Act violations. Of these cases, 14 involved salary disputes.

Ms Lee also raised the issue of security for residents living near dormitories that house unpaid foreign workers who may be tempted to turn to crime. She said her constituents in the Teachers Estate had been feeling insecure due to the high number of foreign workers staying in nearby Tagore Industrial Park.

Residents had told her that foreign workers often loiter in their estate and even approach them for jobs.

Responding, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee said the sense of insecurity was based more on perception rather than reality. While foreign workers may loiter and cause a social problem, he pointed out that foreigners generally commit fewer crimes than locals.

He told the House that in 2007, the arrest rate for locals was 456 for every 100,000, compared to 279 for foreigners. The arrest rate for work permit holders was lower at 217 per 100,000 work permit holders.

Associate Professor Ho said the police had in place community engagement programmes and also conducted frequent visits to worker dormitories.

He said besides the police, community involvement is important and many dormitory operators also engage their own security officers to ensure good behaviour among the workers.

(c) 2009 MediaCorp News Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved

(Unpublished) Responses to MOM's letter in ST Forum

The following are responses to MOM's letter in the Straits Times forum regarding foreign worker protection. The first two were rejected for publication by ST Forum while the third, written by John Gee, President of Transient Workers Count Too (www.twc2.org.sg) was published. The letter by MOM can be found below.

A response to MOM but rejected by the Straits Times

Dear ST Forum,

Ms Ng’s letter aims to counter a remark in an earlier Straits Times article in which Jolovan Wham, Executive Director of H.O.M.E., was quoted as saying ‘foreign workers here are given little real protection’.

Ms Ng stated that foreign workers wage claims are usually resolved before they return home except in exceptional circumstances. The veracity of this statement depends on what Ms Ng means by ‘resolved’. Workers may have accepted settlement terms and agreed to return home, but whether or not the settlement terms equal a fair and just outcome is a different matter. In the past few months, many foreign workers from Bangladesh and China have been repatriated and statements from MOM often claim their cases have been ‘resolved’. Yet it is not always the case that these workers are paid fully what they are owed nor are mediation processes necessarily fair.

While a salary case is pending, workers are generally unable to work and cannot afford to stay in Singapore for too long. When cases drag on, workers tend to grow desperate and, under pressure, agree to ’settle’ for whatever is given. The alternative, of prolonging their stay with no guarantee of a higher settlement, weighs mediation outcomes heavily towards employers’ interests.

Furthermore, it is not unreasonable to expect workers to be compensated for breach of contracts. Citing ‘impracticality’ and an economic downturn is questionable. A bad economy does not excuse unethical business practices nor flexibility in upholding the law. It must also be pointed out that there have been many cases in which construction workers from China have been fined hefty ‘breach of contract’ fees despite the fact that their contracts have terms less favorable than the Employment Act and should be void. Companies then deduct large sums of money from the workers’ unpaid salaries, citing ‘breach of contract fees’, before repatriating them. In the past few months, MOM has allowed these ‘breach of contract fees’ to be deducted from workers salaries during mediation meetings.. How is it that this is not considered ‘impractical’ in an economic downturn?

It is encouraging to know that the MOM is taking the recent media coverage seriously and is acting to ensure employers uphold the Employment Act. We look forward to greater enforcement of existing laws and prosecution of errant employers so that all workers will be protected. After all, it is not the mere existence of laws that provide protection but its active and consistent enforcement.

Ms. Stephanie Chok Juin Mei

A response to 'Help with foreign workers' wage claims' (published 20 Jan 2008), by Ms Julia Ng, Ministry of Manpower

Dear ST Forum,

I REFER to Tuesday's letter written by Ms. Julia Ng, Deputy Director, Corporate Communications for Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Manpower.

Ms. Ng said that the wage claims of workers in sticky situations such as when their companies are placed under liquidation would take longer to pursue. From recent press reports, this seems to be the case for the Bangladeshi workers who have been affected by the actions of Tipper Corp and other marine companies. There seems to be limited options for them not only do they who have to contend with poor accommodation, insufficient food and lack of jobs, they may have to return home to their countries with a huge debt burden.

In the letter, the issue of compensating foreign workers during the remaining period of their work permits upon termination was also brought up. It is my view that employers should be held responsible for adequately compensating workers who have been laid off. MOM should not just look at settling wage claims of workers who are hit by the recession. This is because these workers have barely any work to start with. How much salaries can they claim then? Moreover, many of these workers come into Singapore by borrowing large sums of money. Where can workers seek redress under such circumstances?

MOM should step up on its public education and remind employers of their obligations. Similarly, workers should be aware of their rights and be able to seek redress without fear of reprisals. There is a need for effective measures to address the problem of workers paying huge sums of money to come to Singapore to work. All these can be achieved through public education and by working proactively with the governments of sending countries, NGOs and unions to ensure exploited migrant workers are treated fairly.

Alvin Tan Cheong Kheng

A response to 'Help with foreign workers' wage claims' (published 20 Jan 2008), by Ms Julia Ng, Ministry of Manpower

Dear ST,

Ms Julia Ng makes some fair points in her defence of MOM's record against critical remarks by Mr Jolovan Wham. We appreciate that there are protections for migrant workers in Singapore's laws and that workers whose permits have been cancelled do have certain recourses for seeking a resolution of their grievances. That said, it would surprise no-one to be told that we wish for protective measures to be more far-reaching and comprehensive.

We do still think that there are problem areas in the handling of cases of workers whose permits have been cancelled, and it was perhaps these that provoked Mr Wham's comments. For example, those workers who need to stay in Singapore while a case is resolved have few means by which to survive, and might therefore feel undue pressure to accept a resolution of their cases that leaves them well short of full compensation. The MOM seeks to mediate honestly in resolving employer-employee disputes over salary questions, but in conditions where the employer lives in comfort and security and the worker may be shelterless and hungry, the outcome may be prejudiced by circumstances outside the mediation process. This can mean workers getting half of what they are due according to law.

Ms Ng raises serious practical considerations about Mr Wham's proposal for workers to be compensated for their remaining contract period when their employment is terminated early. If it seems unrealistic to compensate workers for the whole of this period, though, two points may be considered. One is that it is all the more important that workers should be paid in full for the time they have already been employed. The other is that most workers have gone into debt to come to work in Singapore, and, just as a citizen might expect to be fully reimbursed by a shop when an item it has sold does not work, so these workers have a legitimate claim to recover their outlay. It is not just a job for Singapore: it needs attention in the workers' home countries too, where a large portion of the debt was originally accrued. But Singapore should surely expect to play some role in ensuring that such workers do not end up returning home poorer than when they decided to come here.

John Gee
President
Transient Workers Count Too

The following is MOM's letter, published in ST Forum, 20 January 2009.
Help with foreign workers’ wage claims

I REFER to last Wednesday’s report, ‘55 foreign workers get the boot’, in which Jolovan Wham, a migrant worker activist, was quoted as saying that Singapore’s labour laws offer little real protection to foreign workers. He implied that they are unable to seek redress once the workers’ work permits are cancelled.

This is inaccurate. Wage claims of foreign workers are usually resolved before they return to their home countries, except in certain situations such as when the company is being placed under liquidation. In those circumstances, it would take longer to pursue the workers’ wage claims. Nevertheless, as long as foreign workers have lodged their claims with the Ministry of Manpower, their cases will be investigated and pursued, even if they have returned to their home countries. Any money recovered will be remitted to them.

Mr Wham also called for foreign workers to be compensated for the remaining period of their work permits when their employment is terminated. This is impractical as we cannot ignore the reality that in an economic downturn, the demand for workers will fall. This will impact both local and foreign workers.

When employers and workers are unable to settle employment disputes on their own, they should approach the ministry for advice and assistance in seeking a resolution. If workers have wage claims or other complaints, they should report to the ministry early for help to recover their entitlements. Separately, the ministry has stepped up its enforcement action to ensure that employers pay their workers in accordance with their employment contracts and the Employment Act. Employers who have violated the law may face prosecution and debarment from employing foreign workers.

Julia Ng (Ms)
Deputy Director, Corporate Communications
for Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Manpower

Workers move out from non-compliant dormitory

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 22 Jan 09.

Workers move out of Tagore dormitory
By Melissa Sim
22 January 2009
Straits Times

They move from poorly maintained dorm to approved quarters in Seletar

ABOUT three weeks after a foreign worker suffering from chicken pox was found dead, more than 120 foreign workers were moved out of a dormitory in Tagore Industrial Estate yesterday.

The living quarters were not approved by the authorities and were found to be 'non-compliant' in November last year.

Yesterday was the last day for employers to move the workers out of the converted factory. The workers were moved to an approved dorm at Seletar West Farmway 6.

The move came too late for three workers who were discovered to have chicken pox after the worker died. They were from the same dormitory.

There have been one death and 13 reported cases of chicken pox in Tagore Industrial Estate since last December.

Close to 400 men were housed at 468 Tagore Industrial Avenue, which was damp and unventilated, and did not have proper medical facilities.

The worker who died there, Mr Mohd Kamaluddin, 28, apparently had not received medical attention for his illness.

He was also not quarantined from the other workers when he had chicken pox.

The Manpower Ministry is currently investigating if Gates Offshore and Goldrich Venture, employers of the 120 men, failed to provide medical care to workers who reported sick.

Employers who fail to look after their foreign workers, including providing acceptable housing and appropriate medical care, can be fined up to $5,000 per worker.

Although 468 Tagore Industrial Avenue has been cleared out, The Straits Times found seven other poorly maintained worker dorms in the area. Checks with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that three of the buildings had not received approval to be converted into worker dorms.

The URA said it is working with the operators to submit applications as soon as possible.

Where is the work?
As the workers packed up and waited to be ferried to their new dorm at Seletar West Farmway 6,they expressed another concern - the lack of work.

Mr Abdul Kazi Late Mostam Kazi, 24, said he has been in Singapore for about five months and has not had any work all this time. The total amount he has recieved from Gates Offshore since last August is $600.

He said he paid about $9000 in agent's fees to come to Singapore and is disappointed that there is no work.

"Every day I sleep and eat and sleep and eat. I want to work," he said.

(c) 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

Worker who died from medical neglect paid S$167

The following article was posted on The Online Citizen (www.onlinecitizen.com) on 21 Jan 09. For the full story, including pictures, please log on to:
URL:http://theonlinecitizen.com/archives/5221

Mohamed Kamaluddin

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

By Andrew Loh (Additional reporting by Deborah Choo)

All that most Singaporeans know about Mohamed Kamaluddin, 28, is that he is the Bangladeshi worker who contracted chicken pox and died in a dormitory in Tagore Industrial Avenue.

Little else is known about him or his family – and the circumstances surrounding his death.

The Online Citizen decided to find out and raises some questions.

On 28 December 2008, Kamaluddin was found motionless in his bed in the dormitory at 468 Tagore Lane. The Today newspaper reported the next day that Singapore Civil Defence Force paramedics had pronounced Mr Kamaluddin dead at 1.38pm. (Today) It also said that “Mr Kamaluddin’s exact cause of death will only be known later in an autopsy report.”

The Straits Times, on 31 Dec, said “an autopsy has identified heart and lung failure as the cause of death. It is not clear if this was related to his bout of chickenpox. A coroner’s inquiry will be held to ascertain this.” (See here and here.) The cause of his death, according to the death certificate which TOC obtained a copy of, was “cardio respiratory failure pending further investigations.” The time of death was recorded as 12.42pm.

There has been no word from the coroner’s office so far about the coroner’s inquiry.

Absence of medical treatment
Time of death aside, what is more troubling is the medical treatment, or lack of, which was given to Kamaluddin and the rest of the infected workers. TOC understands that Kamaluddin had had chicken pox for at least a week (according to news reports), though some workers told us he, and some others, had had the infection for as long as a month. This seems to be corroborated by photos taken by Mr AKM Mohsin, Chief Editor and CEO of Bangladeshi newspaper, Banglar Kantha. Mr Mohsin had visited the workers at the 468 dormitory on the 21st of November last year – more than a month before Kamaluddin died (28 Dec). The picture (right) showed several workers who had chicken pox and were being segregated from the rest. Notice that they are sleeping on the floor. It is, however, unclear if Kamaluddin was one of them.

Mr Mohsin, who spoke to the workers during his visit in November, told TOC that the only treatment they received from their employer were a few tablets of panadol, according to what the workers said.

Their employer, Mr Paul Lee of Gates Offshore, said that Kamaluddin “had gone for a run” on the morning of the 28thand that his supervisors had told him that Kamaluddin was not suffering from chicken pox. “I have 700 to 800 workers in the dormitory,” Mr Lee said when asked by the Today newspaper about the lack of medical treatment the men were receiving. “It is not unusual if someone dies a natural death.”. (Today)

After Kamaluddin was found dead, the rest of the infected workers, 10 in all, were then sent to Tan Tock Seng hospital to be treated. (See here).

Kamaluddin’s body was sent home to Bangladesh after Muslim rites were performed on the 30th of December. According to the Straits Times, Gates Offshore paid for this and the cost of sending his body home. (See here)

Gates Offshore had also deposited S$167 into Kamaluddin’s bank account. It did not say what this was for.

Questions:

Negligence?

The first question that comes to mind is one of potential negligence on the part of several parties.

According to Chapter 91.A of the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act (EFMA):

3. The employer shall be responsible for and bear the costs of the worker’s upkeep and maintenance. This includes the provision of adequate food, as well as medical treatment.

6. The employer shall send the worker for a medical examination by a registered Singapore doctor as and when directed by the Controller. The employer shall also bear any medical expenses incurred by the worker for the medical examination.

7. The employer shall ensure that the worker is not ill-treated, exploited, wilfully neglected* or endangered. This includes providing the worker with adequate rest, as well as rest day(s) in accordance with the terms of the employment contract. The employer shall not involve or allow the worker to be engaged in any illegal, immoral or undesirable conduct or activity.

(*The “Controller” refers to the Controller of Work Passes. *Emphasis mine.)

Mr Paul Lee said that his supervisors had told him that Kamaluddin had gone for a run on the morning of the 28th, the day he died, and that he was not suffering from chicken pox. (See here.) If indeed this is true, it would bring into question the issue of competency of the supervisors – since Kamaluddin, by all accounts, had been suffering from chicken pox for at least a week prior to his death. Indeed, he hadn’t eaten for two days prior to his death too.

According to the Straits Times, Lee said that “a dormitory supervisor goes on morning rounds to check if any worker is unwell.” If this was true, why did the supervisor do nothing to help Kamaluddin who had been sick for at least a week?

According to what some workers told TOC, Kamaluddin was given some panadol tablets for his condition by the supervisors. If this is true, it would mean that the supervisors knew that Kamaluddin was unwell. Why, if this was so, was he not sent to the doctor’s then? And is administering panadol the standard medical treatment for workers who are sick, no matter what the illness?

Ministry of Manpower

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) seem to accept that Kamaluddin had died of “cardio respiratory failure”, as indicated in the death certificate, and has not, as far I am aware, probed further into the incident.

The next question one would ask is one of hygiene. In the EFMA, it is stated: “The employer shall provide safe working conditions and acceptable accommodation for the worker.”

In a Straits Times report on 21 January 2009, it said that those who contracted chicken pox in December last year were not quarantined. This would allow the infection to spread to other workers. Indeed, besides Kamaluddin, 10 others were infected with the chicken pox.

Conditions at the 468 dormitory was so bad that the Ministry of Manpower found it “non-compliant”:

Last November, the Manpower Ministry (MOM) checked the dorm and found it to be ‘non-compliant’. It said it told employers to move the workers out by today.

After last month’s outbreak, the Health Ministry (MOH) had also advised on-site supervisors to clean the facilities, isolate the cases and provide separate toilets, among other things.(Straits Times)

The question is whether the MOM or the MOH did any follow-up after those warnings last year. Were the instructions complied with? Are the poor conditions and food the reasons for the latest outbreak of chicken pox cases there as well, as reported by the Straits Times on the 21st of January, where three workers have contracted the condition?

The workers at 468 told TOC that they were given only two meals a day – one at 7am in the morning and another at 7pm in the evening. The meals consisted of a variance of “two pieces of bread” and “watery curry” in the morning, and rice and watery curry in the evening. At times, the food turned bad and the workers have had to throw them away. As a result, they would go hungry as they do not have money to buy their own food, since they are not given work and are not paid by their employer.

Was Kamaluddin also given the same watery curry and rice/bread when he was sick? Had the food turned bad as in previous instances? Was this the reason why Kamaluddin did not eat the food on the two days before he died?

Finally, is it MOM’s policy to allow “700 to 800” workers to be housed in such atrocious conditions? While MOM may have given warnings to errant employers about this, the fact that the workers have been there for months shows that MOM has been laxed in its enforcement.

These questions remain unanswered. The employer seems to have been let off without any meaningful inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Kamaluddin’s death – particularly the question of willful negligence, which would contravene what is indicated in the EFMA.

A son, father and husband
Mohamed Kamaluddin, who had been in Singapore for two months, was a kerosene seller back in his village of Gaffar Gaon, Bangladesh, before he came to Singapore. He has a wife, Shahnaz, and a son, Samrat, 5. His 70 year old mother, when told of his death, was so stricken with grief that she could not even speak a word. His wife and son now live with Kamaluddin’s elder brother, Shamsul, 48, a farmer.

His family has assumed his debts and his wife will have to sell Kamaluddin’s own land when the creditors come calling in about 2 months. They had sold the family land and borrowed from friends to raise the S$7,000 for Kamaluddin to come to Singapore. Shahnaz, 24, presently depends on her in-laws to survive. Samrat has stopped going to school as they cannot afford to send him.

“When Kamaluddin died,” she told Mr Mohsin who visited the family in Bangladesh, “my future, my dream, died with him.”

At Kamaluddin’s funeral in his home town of Mymensing, 200 villagers turned up to pay their respects.

He had been in Singapore for two months and was promised a job in the shipyards.

In the end, he was paid S$167 – and only after he died.

Many questions remain unanswered about Kamaluddin’s death. One can only hope that Kamaluddin’s story is one which will not be repeated. The only way, it seems, that if this were to be so, is for those who were derelict in their duties and responsibilities to be first held accountable.

CHICKEN pox is still spreading among workers living in dormitories at Tagore Industrial Estate, and migrant worker advocacy groups say little has been done by employers to improve living conditions even after a recent death. – Straits Times, 21 January 2009>

The workers at the 468 dorm were moved to another dorm at Seletar West Farmway 6 on 21 Jan 2009. See this report by Straits Times.

Special thanks to Mohsin for the pictures.

Chinese migrant workers stay put for Chinese New Year

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 22 Jan 09.

'Seeing family too much of a luxury in bad times'
By Yen Feng
Additional reporting by Yeo Sam Jo
22 January 2009
Straits Times

Foreign workers here worried about cost staying put for Chinese New Year

FOR as long as she can recall, Ms Echo She, 27, has ushered in Chinese New Year at her home in Xi'an, China.

She remembers feasting on steamed carp and dumplings, and at night, a sky lit with soaring streams of fireworks.

This year, Ms She will have neither fish nor fireworks. Instead, she will be frying up some chicken.

Along with the growing number of Chinese workers here, the assistant manager at Bedok's KFC will be giving up her national tradition for a new one.

Many will spend Chinese New Year Eve here with friends; others by themselves at work, in school or at a temple.

Travel agencies and companies here say fewer Chinese workers are going home for the holidays this year due to a gloomy trio of rising costs, stagnant wages and a deteriorating economy.

They are mostly blue-collar employees: mechanics, service attendants and labourers who cannot afford the trip home and, fearful for their jobs, choose to remain here instead.

Ms She moved to Singapore eight months ago. She will be working during the 15-day festival, which begins on Monday. She said she had no choice but to stay: 'I have to support myself.'

The Chinese New Year is the Chinese community's largest and most important traditional holiday.

Every year, about 188 million Chinese workers - both locally and overseas - make tremendous efforts to get home on the eve for dinner. Called chun yun, or the 'Spring Festival travel season', this flow of bodies is considered the world's largest human migration event.

However, many Chinese workers here are staying put.

Singapore's largest travel agency SA Tours said tickets purchased by Chinese workers returning home have fallen by between 30 per cent and 35 per cent compared with sales during this time last year.

ASA Holidays reported a dip too, of 5 per cent to 8 per cent.

Construction firms, food centre owners and cleaning agencies - companies that mainly hire Chinese labour - say their employees are reluctant to leave as jobs become increasingly scarce.

One manager of a construction company said all his 200 workers will not be going home this year.

He declined to be named because of the recent controversy surrounding Chinese workers' salaries, but said: 'Seeing your family is too much of a luxury in these times.'

Most Chinese workers are employed on temporary contracts that last two years. They are free to go home in the meantime, but they do so at great personal cost: A round-trip plane ticket to Beijing costs $700 - more than two-thirds an average monthly wage.

Lost days at work mean also less income, as managers look for staff to pick up the slack during the holiday season.

'The company needs me,' said labourer Peng Aiying, 23, a Jiangsu native who moved to Singapore last year. 'I'm here to work. I have to try not to go back.'

Mechanic Zhang Xinguang, 28, said 'now is not the time' to be thinking of home. He said: 'The economy is bad. I'll go home next year.'

For Chinese workers who will welcome the Year of the Ox here, the experience is nostalgic and often lonely.

For one thing, they will have no relatives to visit during the first few days of the new year, as is customary for the Chinese. Most employees will take only the first day off (if they do at all) before going back to work.

Also, while many will send a little extra cash home for the holiday, the children's hongbao will arrive in mailed envelopes, rather than being handed out in person with the usual cheer and greetings of prosperity and health.

Many among the new wave of Chinese migrants are from northern provinces such as Jiangsu, Henan and Shaanxi, whose Chinese New Year practices are different from those of the local community here.

Chinese-Singaporeans' families are typically from China's southern provinces, like Fujian and Guangdong.

In northern China, for instance, it is customary on Chinese New Year Eve to make jiao zi, or dumplings, to celebrate the new year. Dumplings represent wealth because their shape is like the Chinese tael.

In the south, the Chinese make instead a type of sticky cake called nian gao, which symbolises good luck. It is often fried with eggs and red bean paste.

Since the holiday's most important event, the family reunion dinner, centres around the kitchen table, it is unsurprising that the thought of food is enough to inspire pangs of homesickness.

To feel closer to home, many workers The Straits Times spoke to said they would be making their own dumplings in their dormitories or shared flats.

Mr Peng will spend his Chinese New Year Eve huddled with his room-mates, wrapping dumplings and cooking them in a portable steamboat, a type of electronic hotpot.

Senior technician Jiang Fei, 28, wants to go shopping for some flour and pork this week to make dumplings too. 'It's my son's favourite dish,' he said. His son recently turned four.

As the night wears on, many Chinese workers will call home during the year's final minute to bring in the new year with their families.

But Mr Wang Dongzhou, 25, a technician at a paper processing company, will not be doing that.

'It's too hard,' he said. 'I'd rather work so I don't have to think about it.' Mr Wang has a two-year-old daughter.

Such homesickness has led others to seek spiritual peace.

This month, staff at various temples report a rise in the number of Chinese workers who visit their gilded Buddhas for a little sympathy.

Mr Liu An Ding, a temple volunteer, said Eunos' Fa Lun She temple and the Shi Fa Lin temple at Pasir Ris have noticeably more Chinese nationals who come to pray.

At Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery, Singapore's largest Buddhist temple, Venerable Chuan Hou described the new wave of devotees as 'exponential'.

'During weekends, there are now about 50 or 60 of them who come and spend their day here with us.

'A year ago, it was only three or four.'

Ms Tang Zhongqun, a single mother from Guilin, is one of them. The 45-year-old left her daughter last year to study nursing here.

She was seated at the temple's Hall of No Form, under the serene gaze of a 14m-high bronze Buddha.

She said: 'I don't know many people here. During the weekends, it's terrible to be so far from my daughter.'

To help homesick Buddhists like Ms Tang, the temple's Abbot Guang Sheng has planned a Chinese New Year Eve gathering for Chinese workers to meet others like them.

Nearly 200 have signed up.

Chinese nationals who work as professionals were mostly unaffected.

The Hua Yuan Association, a social networking club for white-collar Chinese migrants, said many of their members will be going home as usual.

Dr Li Yang and his wife, also a doctor, who moved to Singapore last year, will fly back to Shandong to see their parents tomorrow.

He said that even though Chinese New Year is celebrated here, it just 'doesn't feel right' to be without his family.

'The weather is different, the food is different - the atmosphere, what's atmosphere without a bit of fireworks?'

In schools, Chinese students from the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University will be staging Chinese New Year concerts tomorrow and on Saturday.

The number of Chinese nationals working in Singapore has shot up in recent years.

Groups of them started coming here in the 1970s, and they worked mostly in construction sites and factories.

The influx started in 2007, when rules were relaxed to allow more men and women from China to work in service jobs.

The Chinese Embassy estimates that there are more than 100,000 China nationals here, including about 36,000 students and 80,000 workers.

(c) 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

Workers move out from non-compliant dormitory

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 22 Jan 09.

Workers move out of Tagore dormitory
By Melissa Sim
22 January 2009
Straits Times

They move from poorly maintained dorm to approved quarters in Seletar

ABOUT three weeks after a foreign worker suffering from chicken pox was found dead, more than 120 foreign workers were moved out of a dormitory in Tagore Industrial Estate yesterday.

The living quarters were not approved by the authorities and were found to be 'non-compliant' in November last year.

Yesterday was the last day for employers to move the workers out of the converted factory. The workers were moved to an approved dorm at Seletar West Farmway 6.

The move came too late for three workers who were discovered to have chicken pox after the worker died. They were from the same dormitory.

There have been one death and 13 reported cases of chicken pox in Tagore Industrial Estate since last December.

Close to 400 men were housed at 468 Tagore Industrial Avenue, which was damp and unventilated, and did not have proper medical facilities.

The worker who died there, Mr Mohd Kamaluddin, 28, apparently had not received medical attention for his illness.

He was also not quarantined from the other workers when he had chicken pox.

The Manpower Ministry is currently investigating if Gates Offshore and Goldrich Venture, employers of the 120 men, failed to provide medical care to workers who reported sick.

Employers who fail to look after their foreign workers, including providing acceptable housing and appropriate medical care, can be fined up to $5,000 per worker.

Although 468 Tagore Industrial Avenue has been cleared out, The Straits Times found seven other poorly maintained worker dorms in the area. Checks with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed that three of the buildings had not received approval to be converted into worker dorms.

The URA said it is working with the operators to submit applications as soon as possible.

(c) 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

3 more workers at Tagore dorm contract chicken pox

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 21 Jan 09.

3 more workers at Tagore dorm contract chicken pox
By Melissa Sim
21 January 2009
Straits Times

CHICKEN pox is still spreading among workers living in dormitories at Tagore Industrial Estate, and migrant worker advocacy groups say little has been done by employers to improve living conditions even after a recent death.

Three weeks after foreign worker Mohd Kamaluddin, who was infected with chicken pox, died, three more cases have been discovered in the dorm at 468 Tagore Industrial Avenue, where he lived.

Bangladeshi worker Rajib Aiz Uddin, 30, who works for Gates Offshore, said he was ill last Saturday and saw a doctor at the Apollo Medical Centre that day. The doctor confirmed that he had chicken pox.

Two other workers were taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for treatment over the last week.

Said a volunteer at advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), who did not wish to be named: 'The area is still a breeding ground for such illnesses. The dorm is dark and damp, and there is no ventilation.'

When The Straits Times visited the dorm on Monday, infected workers were sleeping in a separate room, which is an improvement from the last outbreak, when those with chicken pox were not quarantined.

However, the room had no beds, was not air-conditioned, and the workers were free to leave the room and mingle with others in the dorm.

Last November, the Manpower Ministry (MOM) checked the dorm and found it to be 'non-compliant'. It said it told employers to move the workers out by today.

After last month's outbreak, the Health Ministry (MOH) had also advised on-site supervisors to clean the facilities, isolate the cases and provide separate toilets, among other things.

MOH also provided thermometers for the workers to check for fever.

But advocacy groups say more could have been done to help the workers after the first outbreak. They say that though those with visible signs of chicken pox were treated, others with symptoms such as a fever should have been isolated.

The workers' employer refused to answer queries from The Straits Times on why so little had been done to contain the problem.

Although MOM said that an employer is responsible for providing acceptable housing and appropriate medical care, the definition of what is acceptable remains vague.

Checks with various authorities showed that there are no strict regulations regarding medical facilities such as sick bays in worker dorms.

Only the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), which oversees 15 dorms, has laid down some rules.

It requires that there be at least one sick bay for every 1,000 workers.

Each sick bay, with two single beds, has to be air-conditioned and equipped with an attached toilet and facilities such as a shower and wash basin.

The BCA said it has also recently added a new requirement to install a communications system in the dorms' sick bays.

This is to allow a quarantined worker to contact the duty officer or security guard in the event of an emergency.

But other dorms do not need to follow these regulations.

There are over 30 foreign-worker living quarters listed on MOM's website.

Additional reporting by Samuel He

(c) 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

Recession-hit Singapore still needs foreigners

The following article was posted by Agence France Presse on 20 Jan 2009.

Recession-hit Singapore still needs foreigners
20 January 2009
Agence France Presse

Singapore, which relies heavily on foreign workers, will still need overseas labour despite a recession, a minister said in comments released Tuesday.

With Singapore in recession, the inflow of foreign workers will slow, Acting Minister for Manpower Gan Kim Yong said in a written response to an MP's question in parliament.

"However, even in a slowdown, our economy still needs foreign workers. Many of them take on jobs that Singaporeans may not want to do or are unable to fill, like in construction and marine," Gan said.

Almost 25 percent of Singapore's population were estimated to be non-resident foreigners last year, the statistics department says.

Gan said that foreign workers allowed Singapore companies to remain globally competitive and contributed to keeping jobs within the country.

"If companies become uncompetitive in Singapore, they may decide to relocate to other countries and we will lose more jobs. This will be a lose-lose outcome," he said.

Singapore in October became the first Asian economy to enter recession.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009.

Muddy Singapore Swallows China Workers, part 3

The following article, Muddy Singapore Swallows China Workers, part 3, is reproduced from website Yawning Bread (http://www.yawningbread.org/). Posted on 19 Jan 09, it is an update from an earlier story, Muddy Singapore Swallows China Workers (and part 2), which blogger Alex Au broke on his site. For the full story, including pictures and links, please log on to http:www.yawningbread.org

[By Alex Au]

These two articles (Parts 3 and 4) form the long-delayed wrap-up of the story about the six Chinese construction workers that I broke in December 2008. See Muddy Singapore swallows China workers and Muddy Singapore swallows China workers, part 2. The workers had been left unpaid for months and when they complained, the company merely offered a fraction of what was due while hiring a repatriation company to seize two of them, in order to get them deported. In this article, I will tie up the loose ends of the men's tale. In Part 4, I will look at the bigger picture.

Whatever happened to the six finally?

Wednesday, 10 December 2008.

The four men who were not detained by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) went for another mediation session hosted by the Ministry of Manpower. As you may recall from my earlier articles, the group had made their first complaint in early November, and nothing had been resolved up to this point, a month later. Instead, the employer appeared to be stonewalling all issues so that the employees' time in Singapore would be exhausted and the men left with no alternative. The ministry for their part seemed to neglect its responsibilities.

At this session -- and by then, the Manpower officer A K Tan had become aware of Yawning Bread's article (more on that later) -- the employer finally offered higher amounts.

Xue Hanming was offered an increased S$3,000 by his employer, as final settlement for three months' unpaid wages, as was Liu Xiaoping. The men still felt that the amounts offered were way below what they were rightfully due, but they agreed because they really wanted to leave, having gone through quite a lot in the previous week. In their employment contracts an average monthly salary of S$1,300 was mentioned. Moreover, in the months they were here, they also worked overtime nearly every day and seven days a week.

Yang Zhiqiang was even more unhappy, being offered just S$2,000, but eventually he signed, because the labour agent in China had called his wife to pressure her. She in turn rang him and pleaded with him to return to China. She seemed to have been given the impression that Yang was causing a lot of trouble and might be jailed.

The amounts seem quite arbitrary and neither myself nor the NGO people understand how they were arrived at.

Tian Suyun refused to accept the S$2,000 he was offered; he felt it was far short of the S$6,900 he was owed. Eventually the employer revised the amount to S$3,500, which he accepted.

The same day, Chen Yuguang and Xue Chengming were released by the ICA and given a pass to stay in Singapore for just one day to resolve their issues with their employer. (How would you like to negotiate with your employer knowing you will arrested as an illegal immigrant, jailed and caned if you didn't settle within 24 hours?)

[See http://www.yawningbread.org/ for a scan of the one day Special Pass issued to Xue Chengming]

These two had been nabbed and unlawfully detained by two different repatriation companies [1] engaged by the employer and then transferred to the ICA, who seemed happy to take custody of kidnappees.

Upon their release, the two promptly went to a police station to file a report about being unlawfully detained and robbed of their handphones by their employer and its agents. At some point soon after, they got their phones back.

(I must say this -- in the saga, the police were acquitting themselves quite well.)

The same evening, Channel U and Channel 8 aired a news snippet about this group, devoting a generous 2 minutes to the story. Here is the Channel U version; I don't know whether the Channel 8 version was the same. [You can watch this clip by clicking on 'Videos' on this blog and look for 'China Construction Workers Taken by Repatriation Companies'].

Liang Kaixin of Channel 8 emailed me too to provide me with a link to their webstory. The link is here.

Reporters from the Straits Times and Today also did interviews and took photographs, though nothing appeared in the papers the day after.

Thursday, 11 December 2008.

The first four flew back to China. From the airport, Liu called volunteer Stephanie Chok to confirm that they had received their agreed amounts and to express their thanks for all the help they have received.

Yang wanted a special document to certify that he did not cause any trouble while he was in Singapore, because as mentioned above, the agent in China had been harassing his wife. She was very anxious and he wanted something to document the fact that he was not breaking any laws. However, this was also only going to be given to him at the airport, and there are no independent witnesses to confirm that such a document was actually handed over to him.

Xue Chengming and Chen Yuguang (the two who had just been released by the ICA) went for mediation at Manpower today. Xue was offered S$3,000 and Chen Yuguang S$3,700. They settled for these amounts even though they felt these weren't altogether fair. Additionally, they wanted compensation for the distress they had gone through as a result of being seized and detained.

The Chinese embassy also called the Ministry of Manpower today. What transpired is not clear but unofficial reports indicated that the embassy wanted the ministry to settle the matter today itself.


Friday, 12 December 2008.

Xue and Chen went to ICA to collect their passports and their pay. They were then sent to the airport and took an evening flight home.

* * * * *

A few weeks later, the volunteers who were involved with this case told me the people at the Ministry of Manpower, particularly A K Tan, the officer who was handling this case directly, were rather upset with Yawning Bread and me. They, or he, were especially annoyed because I mentioned their names.

Good. This is how it should be.

The cancer that has to be rooted out is a culture of impunity bred under a cosy cloak of anonymity. Behind anonymity, civil servants can neglect their responsibilities or abuse their powers, and get away with it.

Our civil service is particularly fond of anonymity. I've had many run-ins with government departments where they point-blank tell me that they will not reveal their names. "Because I am acting in my official capacity," they say.

"How the hell do I know you are rightfully acting in your official capacity if I cannot verify who you are?" I ask. But my riposte, I believe, is usually too intellectual for them, because the response is typically a sullen silence.

No self-respecting private company would tolerate similar attitudes and behaviour. I know, because I have managed customer service departments. Generally, private sector customer service officers wear nametags, and when dealing with any client or member of the public, company culture would expect them to identify themselves, speak and act on record. They are held personally accountable for discharging their duties on behalf of the company.

If the civil service thinks that they deserve the same respect and pay as the private sector, they should ask themselves whether they take responsibility to the same degree.

* * * * *

I don't think it is a coincidence that the issue was resolved a bit more to the men's satisfaction after I gave publicity to their plight. I shudder to think what these civil servants would have gotten away with if I had held my tongue.

It was gratifying to me that the mainstream media finally began publicising similar stories in the weeks following. I'm not suggesting that they were asleep all the while even as the Xuyi case was brewing; far from it. Various reporters had been interested in this case all along and had been interviewing and filming, but their editors were much more careful about letting the stories run.

What I think my story did was to kick the Manpower Ministry into finally giving some reaction to queries from the media. Why is this important? In Singapore's mainstream media, any story that involves the government is generally not allowed by editors to run until the government has given a response to reporters' questions. That way, the government will not look bad in news reports; they are always assured that their side of the story will be given prominence.

But such a media rule has a perverse effect: So long as a ministry stonewalls a reporter's query, the story is held in suspension, not reaching the public.

I believe publicising it in the blogosphere makes a difference. It makes it impossible for the government department concerned to play delaying tactics. Once it is out in cyberspace, officials have to respond to mainstream media enquiries -- for otherwise they will not get their side of the story out at all -- thus greenlighting our newspapers and broadcasters to run the story.

And boy, were there other stories to tell. See Part 4.

BOX STORY: It's not just a China problem, but our problem too

Stephanie learnt from Xue Chengming that on 2 December, the day he was seized from his dormitory by the repatriation company, his wife in China also received a "threatening" call. His wife was frantic with worry and tried to contact her husband. However she couldn't reach him as his phone had been taken away.

Xue said she cried for 8 days and didn't eat, until he called her back on his release.

This might not be the end of it. He was concerned when he is back in China, there may be further repercussions.

* * *

My point would be this: While it is easy to say that ultimately, this kind of bullying is a private matter, an aspect of the rough labour relations in China, we cannot ignore the fact that the Singapore government, which is answerable to us citizens, is not entirely powerless. Conscience dictates that if we know that the system we have put in place produces this kind of grotesque results, then we must reexamine our foreign labour recruitment system.

Washing our hands of the consequences of our policies is also culpability.

* * *

Right up there in the top left corner of the front page of The Sunday Times, 19 January 2009, is a quote from Lee Wei Ling's opinion piece on page 29. The quote the newspaper highlighted was "It is our duty to right a wrong when we see one."

If we can change our foreign labour policies and systems so that such things don't happen in our midst, we must.

© Yawning Bread

Muddy Singapore - an update

The following article was posted on The Online Citizen (www.theonlinecitizen.com) on Monday, 19 January 2009.

This is an update on the Chinese workers who were featured in Alex Au’s articles, Muddy Singapore Swallows China Workers (Part One & Two). You can also read Alex Au’s updates here: http://yawningbread.org/


Muddy Singapore - an update
By Stephanie Chok

There has been much interest and concern generated by Alex Au’s blog entries about a group of China construction workers employed by Xuyi Building Engineering Co. (see ‘Muddy Singapore Swallows China Workers’). Here is an update on the six men.

The photo above - of former Xuyi employees, Chen Yu Guang and Xue Cheng Ming, who were taken by repatriation companies hired by their company - was taken on 12 Dec 2008, the day Chen and Xue returned to China. Released from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority just two days earlier, the men were relieved to be released and anxious to return home after their ordeal.

Xue told me his wife in China received a telephone call the morning he was taken against his will from his dormitory. The caller told Xue’s wife ‘your husband is causing trouble in Singapore and will be taken away’. Shortly after, Xue’s wife tried to ring him but as his phone had been confiscated, was unable to get through. For the next eight days, as Xue was confined in a repatriation company, then the police station and finally at ICA, she was frantic with worry. Her husband had gone missing and she had no way to contact him.

Both Chen and Xue lodged police complaints on 10 Dec 2008 about their phones being confiscated by force and being locked up illegally by repatriation companies [Picture below]. Both men had their phones returned, but no charges appear to have been laid against either the repatriation companies (one of which is UTR) nor Xuyi for removing and holding the men against their will.


This was the last meeting I had with both Chen and Xue, as they rushed off shortly after to the ICA and called to say they were leaving that same night for China. Their flight was at midnight and worried calls were being exchanged till 11pm, when Xue finally confirmed they received their money. There was visible elation and relief in his voice as he told me they were about to board the plane. The following morning, I receive an sms from Chen, who’s back in China. Just last week, I called Chen, who’s back in Jiangsu, and in his usual cheerful voice, tells me he is fine. He also tells me that he is waiting to return to Singapore and has already paid up his first installment of SGD500 to an agent in Singapore and is waiting for further news.

As for Xue Han Ming, Liu Xiao Ping, Tian Su Yin and Yang Zhi Qiang, they returned to China a day earlier, on 11 Dec 2008. Three of them (Xue, Liu and Yang) settled their dispute the day before during negotiations at MOM, which took place individually. Each worker was taken aside and an offer was made. When the worker agreed, they had to sign a document testifying to this. They were not given copies of this document.

After the meeting, Yang revealed that his wife in China received a phone call from their labour agent, saying ‘your husband is causing trouble in Singapore’. Yang showed me an sms his wife sent, pleading with him to come home as soon as possible. This pressure made him accept half of what he was owed in unpaid wages and overtime pay and return home.

None of them got their full wages owed (generally, they accepted half in their settlements) but all were eager to be returning home after a harrowing few weeks. They also received much more than in earlier meetings, where amounts offered were generally less than $1000 (some workers who signed at the first MOM meeting on 11 Nov 08, attended by the larger group of 34, were offered a few hundred dollars.)

Tian, who refused to sign on 10 Dec 2008, was called back to the MOM on the morning of 11 Dec 2008. The MOM officer present at the meeting commented that the men were now ‘celebrities’, after appearing on Channel 8 and Channel U news the night before. [You can watch the newsclip here].

Apparently, the media coverage had not gone unnoticed – it seems the Chinese embassy had rung to tell the MOM ‘this matter must be settled today’. The MOM officer had also read Yawning Bread’s entry and was displeased with the portrayal.

The matter was, indeed, settled that very day. Tian eventually signed after being offered $3500 (he was owed $6941 in unpaid wages, unpaid overtime and recovery of unlawful deductions). The men commented how swiftly things moved in the last two days after all the media interest, a marked contrast to their earlier attempts to resolve their case. As talk turned to future plans, the men said they planned to return to Singapore after Chinese New Year. They said they would be more careful now which company they worked for, though it appears agency fees must still be paid.

As the arrangement was that outstanding monies was to be paid at the airport just before departure, the men were asked to report if they received the rightful amounts. Tian, who was scheduled to leave on an afternoon flight, said he would only ring if there was a problem. There was no call, so it is assumed the money was received. Xue, Yang and Liu left together on a night flight. Close to midnight, Liu called from the airport to confirm they received the money they were promised before boarding the plane. He said it was hard to find words to express how he felt, and said a heartfelt thank you.

So little work, so many workers

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 18 Jan 09.

So little work, so many workers
Nur Dianah Suhaimi
18 January 2009
Straits Times

It is building up to be a problem of mismatch.

Construction companies are staring at little or no work, but have too many foreign workers on their hands.

The workers were brought in when prospects were markedly brighter. At the moment, at least, the industry is seeing a drop in activity given the global economic slowdown.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) recently projected that the value of contracts awarded by the private industry will drop from $20.1 billion last year to between $5 billion and $9 billion this year.

The bleaker times are reflected by the fact that all 10 construction firms that The Sunday Times spoke to admitted that projects now are scarce.

Most did not want to be named for fear they will be blacklisted by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and barred from employing foreign workers in future.

This is because companies are supposed to have work for their workers when they apply for work permits. They are also not allowed to deploy their workers to another occupation or employer.

The firms said that many private-sector projects have been delayed or cancelled due to the downturn. For example, developers have put residential projects on the back-burner since the fourth quarter last year when home prices fell.

While they are hoping to secure some of the government projects expected to come on stream in the middle or end of this year, some may not have any work in the interim.

For those with ongoing private-sector projects, the flip side is that these will be completed in the next few months.

The companies said having excess workers is a huge problem because they cannot afford to pay idle workers but the latter may also get the firms into trouble if they try to find work elsewhere.

Said the founder of one construction outfit: 'It's very difficult for employers right now. We don't want to send our foreign workers home before their contracts end. We know they took up huge debts to come here. But we cannot afford to keep them here either.'

At least one firm, Tunnel & Shaft, has sent 55 of its 200-plus foreign workers home on a 'two-month holiday' without terminating their contracts. It gave them $1,000 compensation each.

They were recruited last year in anticipation of two major projects, estimated to be worth $20 million, but these have been delayed.

Said director Ben Sim: 'They are good and hard-working workers. But we really have no choice.'

It hopes to bring them back when there is work. One of its directors has flown to the Middle East to look for projects.

Another firm is putting two to three people on tasks usually done by one person because 'at least there is work for everyone', said its director.

Having work is so crucial that one construction firm - with three projects - is worried they are ahead of schedule.

'We're usually happy if we are ahead of schedule but now, we are not. Our workers still have four or five months left on their contracts and there will be no more work for them after these projects are done,' said the manager.

MOM said that as long as companies keep their workers here, they will have to pay salaries and be responsible for their welfare, regardless of whether there is work.

Said a spokesman: 'MOM will take to task companies which knowingly recruit foreign workers when there is no work for them, including taking prosecution action. MOM will also debar such errant employers from hiring new foreign workers, as well as revoke all existing work permits applied for by the company.'

In the past few months, there have been several cases of foreign workers turning to the authorities for help.

Their complaints include being unpaid, unfed, having little hope of finding work and in some cases, being poorly housed, if at all.

At least five companies are facing charges for offences ranging from pay delay to illegally deploying foreign workers.

In a jam

'It's very difficult for employers right now. We don't want to send our foreign workers home before their contracts end. We know they took up huge debts to come here. But we cannot afford to keep them here either.'Founder of one construction company

No more work

'We're usually happy if we are ahead of schedule but now we are not. Our workers still have four or five months left on their contracts and there will be no more work for them after these projects are done.'Manager of a construction firm

Face prosecution?

'MOM will take to task companies which knowingly recruit foreign workers when there is no work for them, including taking prosecution action. MOM will also debar such errant employers from hiring new foreign workers, as well as revoke all existing work permits applied for by the company.'Ministry of Manpower spokesman

(c) 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

9 years later, duped worker finally returns to India

The following article was posted on The Online Citizen (http://theonlinecitizen.com) on 16 Jan 09 as part of its special week-long focus week on Migrant Workers in Singapore.

“I have never even seen a ship in Singapore!”

Friday, 16 January 2009, 11:18 pm | 71 views

Story by Ravi Philemon

“My work papers say that I have been employed by Pentagon Express Marine Services Pte Ltd, to work in the shipyard as shipbuilder or as an offshore worker. I have never even seen a ship in Singapore! Instead, I was used as a daily-rated worker to clean offices and hotel rooms. I have also been deployed as a daily-rated store-hand,” says Mr. Somasuntharam Mudali (also known as Somasuntharam Muthiah and also as Sekar Ravi.)

Somasuntharam, who is 55 years old, and is from Pondicherry, India, first came to Singapore to work from the years 1996 through 2000. He paid one Mr. Bala of Pentagon Express Marine Services Pte Ltd the amount of Indian Rupees 140,000 (about 4200 Singapore Dollars), as agent fees to come to Singapore as a foreign worker. When he arrived in Singapore, instead of working on shipbuilding and offshore general work, he was used as a daily-rated worker and was paid $14 per day. “They paid me regularly then. After settling my debts, I was able to send money back home. Then towards the end of 2000, Mr. Bala asked me to go back to India, saying that my work permit could not be renewed; and that he would bring me back to Singapore to work again. Trusting him, I went back to India”, says Somasuntharam.

A new identity

Then in the year 2001, when Somasuntharam contacted Mr. Bala to come back to work in Singapore again, Mr. Bala demanded that Somasuntharam pay him a further agent fees of Indian Rupees 150,000 (about 4500 Singapore Dollars). Mr. Somasuntharam borrowed the required money from friends, relatives and money-lenders. Mr. Bala however, delayed getting him the work permit to come to Singapore for work; not just by days, weeks or months, but by years. Finally in the year 2004, with those that lent him the money demanding payment with exorbitant interests, Somasuntharam ran out of patience and demanded that Mr. Bala pay him back.

Then, Mr. Bala says to Somasuntharam that he is over 50 years old and that the Singapore government would not grant him a work permit because of this. Mr. Bala suggested that Somasuntharam obtain another passport in another name, which would declare that he was much younger than he actually was. As Somasuntharam was afraid that he would not get his money back if he did not do as instructed by Mr. Bala, he agreed to do so. Mr. Bala applied for a passport for him under the name of ‘Sekar Ravi’ (for which Somasuntharam had to pay another 4000 Indian Rupees) and even coached him how to respond to his new name and on his new signature.

Somasuntharam came back to Singapore a second time on 9 May 2004. “For the first five months, everything went well”, says Somasuntharam. “I was paid the same $14 per day. Then on the sixth month, the payment stopped. Mr. Bala verbally assaulted me with vulgar words, said that I was ungrateful and told me that the main contractors had not paid him and that he would pay me as soon as he had payment from them. When I did not receive my pay the following month as well and was made to go through the same grueling experience when I enquired about my unpaid salaries, I decided to approach the Ministry of Manpower (MOM). Although I was initially afraid, I mustered enough courage and approached MOM with 3 other friends (2 other Indian nationals and 1 Bangladeshi) in early February 2005.”

Ordeal with MOM

The ordeal that Somasuntharam and his friends had to go through after they approached MOM is unbelievable. MOM revealed to them that Pentagon Express Marine Services had not paid the levies for any one of the complainants for the past few months. Investigations further revealed that the foreign workers were not used in the category of work that they were initially granted work permit for and also that Somasuntharam had worked in Singapore prior, and that he was here using a different name, in another passport. Somasuntharam’s work permit was revoked. He was issued a special pass and was asked to stay on in Singapore to assist MOM with the ongoing investigation with Pentagon Express Marine Services and Mr. Bala. Two of his friends (an Indian national by the name of Vijayakumar and the Bangladeshi) who brought the initial complaint to MOM were sent home as MOM deemed that they were not necessary for the ongoing investigations.

“Vijayakumar committed suicide by drinking poison a few days after reaching his village in India”, say Somasuntharam. “All the creditors were demanding their loan back with interests and he could not repay them. He also became the center of ridicule in his village. He just snapped! Poor guy! Vijayakumar has unmarried sisters and an aged mother. How are they going to survive now? That will be a sadder story than Vijayakumar’s end.”

The investigations by MOM dragged on not for months, but years. “There were countless postponements to the case brought on by the lawyers of Pentagon Marine Express Service”, says Somasuntharam. In the meantime, Somasuntharam was not able to find another job. He resorted to sleeping in the streets for a long time in Serangoon Road and got by because of the free meals provided by the nearby Hindu temples. He said his former employers made use of this vulnerability and tried to seduce him with a bribe to go back to India, so that they could not be prosecuted due to lack of evidence. “Mr. Bala did not come to see me directly. He sent a representative whom I have never seen before. The representative offered me $15,000, if I would go back to India. I refused the offer. From then on, they began intimidating me through coercions, like lodging false police reports and even threats of ‘fixing me’”, says Somasuntharam.

His case was finally brought to the attention of Ms Debbie Fordyce a volunteer with Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2). By this time he had had fungal infection on both feet and had also broken his hip in an accident. Ms Fordyce managed to help him get off the streets and to a doctor. She then brought him to a shelter run by Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME). Ms Fordyce and the other volunteers in TWC2 and HOME began advocating for Somasuntharam and finally after many interventions, the case came to a close in early 2009. Somasuntharam admitted and was found guilty of using a different passport with another name to illegally enter Singapore to work.

“Now, only one witness remains for our case against Pentagon Marine Express Services. Dharmindra, who was brought in to Singapore for working in shipbuilding and offshore general work, but was used as a daily-rated driver”, says Somasuntharam. “I don’t know what action the courts and MOM would take against Mr. Bala and Pentagon Marine Express Services. I hope he goes to prison for cheating people like me and for driving people like Vijayakumar to suicide.”

At this juncture, I asked him, “Somasuntharam, how much did you actually earn by your coming to work in Singapore on two different occasions?” He said, “About $5000 the first time I came and the second time I lost a lot of money.” I asked again, “Would not it have been better if you had used the monies you had given Mr. Bala to do some small business back home in India?” Somasuntharam replied, “I was stupid. If I had started a small business like a grocery store, I would have made much more with an investment of about 300,000 Indian Rupees (about 8500 Singapore Dollars). This is what I would tell anybody else who wants to come to work in Singapore by paying agents.”

The courts ordered that he was not owed any salaries as he was not working in the designated company indicated in his work permits and because he was sub out as a daily-rated worker.

Somasuntharam finally left Singapore to India on 14 January 2009.

'More to be done to help foreign workers'

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 16 Jan 09.

More to be done to help foreign workers
By Melissa Sim
16 January 2009
Straits Times

Measures to be taken to educate them on rights, create public awareness

STEPS will be taken by the labour movement over the next few months to improve the lot of foreign workers.

The aim is to educate workers on their rights, so they know what to do when problems such as late salary payments or housing issues arise.

The chairman of the Migrant Workers' Forum (MWF) at the National Trades Union Congress, Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, told The Straits Times last week that more details would be released 'with the new budget'.

He said MWF, together with the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), would 'come up with more projects and find more ways to reach out to foreign workers to help them understand their rights better'.

Another possible way to improve conditions for foreign workers, he said, is to make the general public more aware of the rights of these workers and the legislation that is already in place.

Doing this, he added, would help Singaporeans become 'our whistle blowers and help us because they are the most effective ears and eyes on the ground to throw up cases'.

He also urged the Manpower Ministry (MOM) to step up enforcement and not give employers the impression that enforcement is 'not thorough enough'.

The SNEF, meanwhile, said it already holds two large briefings a year, and smaller monthly industry group meetings on foreign workers' employment conditions. More of such meetings will be organised this year, it said.

Mr Yeo said there is an urgent need for such steps because he anticipates that the economic slowdown may bring about more problems.

In recent months, foreign workers have complained about being unpaid, unfed, poorly housed and, in some cases, even abandoned. Last month alone, there were at least five such reports.

Most recently, about 200 Chinese workers gathered outside the Manpower Ministry at Havelock Road to lodge complaints about their employers, who owed them up to four months of salary.

But Mr Yeo also had a word of advice for foreign workers who are planning to take similar action: Avoid staging large gatherings or protests.

He brought up an example of a previous case handled by MWF, in which a contractor with cashflow problems was trying to resolve the issue and eventually got a new investor. But a public protest over unpaid salaries by the disgruntled workers spooked the new investor, and he pulled out.

Asked what workers should do in such cases, Mr Yeo said they are each given a booklet in their native language when they receive their work permit. If there is a breach in the work permit conditions, they should call the MOM hotline listed in the booklet.

Another word of advice was to join a union for better protection. About 16 per cent of the over 530,000 unionised workers here are foreign work permit holders, Mr Yeo said.

(c) 2009 Singapore Press Holdings Limited