Maid's illness cost employer $1,000 in medical bills

The following article was published in The New Paper on Sunday, Jul 31, 2011 and reproduced by AsiaOne.
By Ang Wei Qin


All she wanted was a maid to help take care of her grandchildren.

Instead, she ended up with a medical bill of more than $1,000 and a family of 12, including two infants, exposed to the risk of tuberculosis (TB).

The infants are now undergoing medication and regular reviews, although they have not been diagnosed with the illness.

It all started on Jan 22, when Ms Siti Rohama, 32, an Indonesian, joined Madam Loh Kham Hwa's family as a domestic helper.

The 56-year-old housewife, who was expecting a grandson in February, wanted an extra pair of hands to help her.

The director of Team-Up Resources, Ms Siti's foreign domestic worker (FDW) agency, Mr Ng Khim Hock, 56, told Madam Loh that Ms Siti had passed all the necessary checks and procedures, including the medical examination under the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) guidelines for FDWs.

Ms Siti's pre-employment health screening test was done at a local lab specialising in check-ups for foreign workers, one that Mr Ng said his company has been working with for more than 10 years.

But Madam Loh claimed that Ms Siti was already coughing from the moment she stepped into her car at the agency.

"But since the medical check up showed nothing out of the ordinary, I thought that it was just a normal cough that would go away," she said.

So for four months until the end of May, Ms Siti helped to look after Madam Loh's first grandchild, a boy, who was five months old in January.

When Madam Loh's daughter-in-law, Dr Siti Aisha, 28, gave birth to a baby boy in February, Ms Siti started looking after the infant as well.

Throughout this period, she had been coughing continually.

Madam Loh said: "We gave her some Chinese medicine and also some leftover cough medicine we had at home, but nothing seemed to work."

"My daughter-in-law, who is a doctor, also prescribed some cough medication, but her cough would always come back."

It wasn't until May 26, when Ms Siti developed a high fever, that Madam Loh suspected something might be wrong.

Despite further medication from Madam Loh's daughter-in-law, the fever persisted.

On June 1, Madam Loh finally sent Ms Siti to her family clinic, Joy Clinic & Surgery at Yishun, for a check-up.

Ms Siti was then referred to Yishun Polyclinic for a chest X-ray and subsequently diagnosed as having contracted TB.

Madam Loh and her family were shocked.

Unwilling to expose her family's health to further risk, Madam Loh sent Ms Siti back to the agency that very evening.

Cancelled work permit

Team-Up Resources then cancelled Ms Siti's work permit on the same day, said Mr Ng.

The next morning, Madam Loh's entire family went to the Tuberculosis Control Unit (TBCU) at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) to get themselves checked for tuberculosis.

The family comprises Madam Loh, her husband, her brother, her three children and their spouses, her two grandchildren and her other maid.

Ms Siti also had to go to the TBCU from Team-Up Resources for further tests and medication, Mr Ng said.

Following the check-up, Mr Ng's agency sent Ms Siti back to Indonesia on a ferry that afternoon.

Said Madam Loh: "My family's medical bills came up to more than $800. I also had to pay around $300 for Siti's medication and check-ups."

Her two grandsons, who are currently 11 months old and five months old, have to return to TBCU every month until December for reviews and medication.

They have to be on a course of antibiotics for up to six months to reduce their risk of contracting TB.

Madam Loh said: "The medicine they are taking may have side effects like jaundice and vomiting.

They have to suffer through injections and X-rays despite being so young.

"They were both perfectly healthy before, and this had to happen."

Mr Ng, said he was also shocked to find out that Siti had TB.

He said: "Her X-ray in her first check-up was clear. I didn't expect this to happen.

"I provided Madam Loh with a new maid for free since our contract stated that I had to provide her with a medically fit maid."

An average of 100 FDWs pass through the doors of Team-Up Resources yearly.

First case

More than 95 per cent pass their first medical check-up here, Mr Ng claimed.

He said Ms Siti was the first such case he had seen after working at Team-Up for more than 10 years.

"There have been cases where the maid gets sick here. But never have I seen a case where a maid's illness wasn't detected in the first place," he said.

Following the incident, Madam Loh wrote a letter to Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao, which was published on June 22.

A joint response from MOM and the Ministry of Health (MOH) was published in both Lianhe Zaobao and the agencies' websites on July 7.

The response said that new FDWs have to undergo and pass a medical examination within 14 days of arriving in Singapore, before they are issued with a work permit.

It also stated: "The objective of the medical examination is to ensure that the FDW is generally fit to work and does not pose a public health threat.

"We are...investigating the pre-employment health screening test that was done for Madam Loh's FDW, and we will contact Madam Loh directly once the investigations are completed."

TNP understands that as of yesterday, MOM and MOH have yet to contact Madam Loh.

Madam Loh said: "Even if your maid is just slightly sick, you must still take her for a check-up no matter how busy you are.

"Don't regret it and end up causing your family more inconvenience later like I did."

Previous cases involving maids and TB

There have been two other cases involving maids and tuberculosis (TB) in Singapore.

In the first, a Filipino maid was found dead along River Valley Road on February 11, three hours before her appointment at the Tuberculosis Control Unit.

Ms Jennifer Pioquinto Dignos, 31, was found at 7am in the middle of the three-lane road outside the branch office of foreign worker help group Humanitarian Organisation of Migration Economics (Home), where she had stayed the previous two nights.

The Straits Times reported that she was believed to have died from TB.

Ms Dignos had been in Singapore for a year at the time of her death.

It is not known where she had contracted the illness from.

In the second case, a maid who joined a family here last January was suspected to have TB after her check-up.

Check-up

The maid, who was not named, had gone straight to the household upon arriving in Singapore on Jan 22 last year.

She had her medical check-up only on Jan 26. The check-up revealed a "vague opacity" in her right lung, which is an indicator of TB.

But the family claimed that the agent kept the results of the test from them.

The maid then requested to be sent back to the agent barely two weeks later as she was unhappy.

Shortly after, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) launched an investigation as they suspected that the maid did not have a valid work permit.

It was during this investigation that MOM told them that the maid could have had TB, the family said.

Upon hearing the news, the family panicked as their only daughter, who was 21/2 years old then, had been coughing badly.

Fortunately, a hospital scan later showed that their daughter was free of tuberculosis.

The maid was repatriated in June last year after MOM completed its investigations.

Suspect TB? Get it diagnosed early

Tuberculosis (TB) presents itself in two forms, latent TB and active TB.

Dr Jim Teo, a respiratory and ICU physician at Nobel Chest and Internal Medicine Centre at Mount Alvernia Hospital and Gleneagles Medical Centre, said that one-third of the world's population have latent TB.

"This is when the TB germs are in the lungs, but...the symptoms don't show," he said.

A person with latent TB has a 10 per cent chance of it developing into the active form.

This is when the symptoms - which include chronic coughing, blood in the phlegm, fever, tiredness and night sweats - will start to show.

Active TB can be detected by a chest X-ray or a phlegm test.

Dr Teo said: "Most people get their active TB diagnosed too late, which is not good as they may already have infected other people.

Early diagnosis is very important because active tuberculosis is very contagious."

Treatment for active TB consists of four different drugs for six to nine months.

In more serious cases, the patient has to be hospitalised.

Dr Teo advised anyone who has been coughing for more than four weeks, or has phlegm in their blood, to consult their doctor immediately.

Latent TB which is typically what people are infected with, is much harder to diagnose because there are no symptoms.

It is diagnosed either through a skin test - called a Mantoux test - or a blood test.

Dr Teo advised anyone who has been in contact with a TB patient in the past to have themselves checked for latent TB immediately.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

New programme to help cut workplace injuries

TODAY, Jul 28, 2011

SINGAPORE - Workplace fatalities inched upwards in the first half of this year - from 25 in the first six months of last year to 30 as at end June this year.

Citing this sober statistic yesterday at the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Awards, Minister of State for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin said this meant that, every week, a family has had to deal with the sudden loss of a loved one due to a workplace incident.

To keep work-related injuries down, a new WSH Assist programme will be launched to benefit some 6,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Consultants will be deployed to SMEs to help them, first, to identify capability gaps, to help kickstart or improve WSH management as well as tap on the various capability building and funding programmes available. The programme is in its pilot phase and will be ready to be rolled out to all SMEs early next year.

This year's awards saw an unprecedented 430 applications - the highest number in the history of the awards - and 214 were picked as winners.

Meanwhile, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) honoured 16 contractors at its Annual Safety Award Convention yesterday for their excellent workplace safety practices.

While the LTA has achieved its lowest accident frequency rate of 0.2 accidents per million man-hours worked for the last decade, the authority began trials on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology which would improve access management and track worker whereabouts during underground construction work.

Besides providing an accurate headcount and last-known location of staff in the various underground construction areas, the RFID technology can monitor the working hours of workers within the construction site to minimise the likelihood of fatigue and to improve safety.

More foreigners applying for self-exclusion orders

by Hoe Yeen Nie
TODAY, Jul 28, 2011

SINGAPORE - More than 12,000 foreigners have applied to be banned from the casinos here since November, when the application process for this group was simplified.

According to a report by the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG), as of last month, the 12,660 foreigners who applied for self-exclusion orders accounted for 70 per cent of the 18,000 self-exclusion orders issued so far.

Of the foreigners who applied, four out of five applicants were men and aged between 21 and 40.

Between January and last month, the number of self-exclusion orders issued to Singaporeans and permanent residents rose from 3,500 to 5,300, while family-exclusion orders doubled to 613 from 297.

The increase is possibly due to the changes made late last year that cut down the processing time for family exclusion orders from six weeks to two weeks on average.

There are more than 1 million foreigners in Singapore, many of whom work in the construction and logistics industries. Many were asked to apply by their employers.

One such company is Eng Lee Engineering, which helped its 400 foreign workers apply for self-exclusion orders between January and March.

Most of its workers are from China and India, and spokesperson Brenda Koh said it is a company policy that every worker sign up. Those who do not comply will not have their work permits renewed.

"Whether they win or lose at the casino, gambling affects their motivation and concentration at work," Ms Koh said, adding that workers caught flouting the ban will have to leave the company.

Another company, HEC Electrical and Construction, not only helped its 200-odd employees with the applications but has also stepped up security at its warehouses after hearing of foreign workers frequenting the casinos.

"Their pay is not high, so we don't want them to waste their hard-earned money," said Ms Eliza Fong, the company's finance and human resource manager.

Not all take the same view.

One company, whose workers have been resistant to the idea of a ban, said trust is more important.

Mr Yeow Kian Seng, managing director of Lucky Joint Construction, said: "I find that it's not necessary for our staff because their attendance is quite regular - except that we monitor those who go on more medical leave."

So far, Mr Yeow said he had not run into any problems with his foreign workers. However, given anecdotes of foreign workers going to the casinos, he is now considering encouraging new employees to sign up.

Besides paper applications, foreign workers can go to the Migrant Workers Centre to register online. But the take-up rate here has been slower. Since December, it has seen only 50 walk-in cases, mostly people from China.

Mr Edwin Pang, executive director of the Migrant Workers Centre, said: "One group would, I would say, come to us in a preventive mode. They want to prevent themselves from falling to the perils of problem gambling."

"The other group, I would say, has reached the end of the limit of their tolerance, because they're in debt or they might feel they've squandered away their hard-earned salaries."

Foreign workers who are tempted to flout the ban may want to think twice. The casinos have checks at the door and at least one company has threatened not to renew its employees' permits if they are caught visiting a casino.

KL warns employers over worker registration

Straits Times, Jul 28, 2011
By Lester Kong, Malaysia Correspondent

Photo caption: A long queue of foreign workers waiting to be registered at the immigration headquarters in Putrajaya. Malaysia aims to have records of workers' fingerprints, but fewer than a quarter of the estimated 1.75 million legal foreign workers have registered. -- PHOTO: THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK

KUALA LUMPUR: With fewer than one-quarter of the estimated 1.75 million legal foreign workers registered under a new biometrics system ahead of the July31 deadline, Malaysia's Home Ministry has warned employers that they risk being thrown to the end of the line for future work permit applications if they continue to drag their feet.

The registration drive, which began on July 13, aims to register all the legal workers before a separate drive to register illegal workers begins on Aug 1.

Malaysia aims to have records of workers' fingerprints to keep track of them, as well as to offer amnesty to illegals here.

The country is hugely dependent on foreign workers in its manufacturing, construction, agricultural and service sectors. There are an estimated two million illegal workers in Malaysia, some of whom will be allowed to remain while the rest will be deported without penalty.

The sluggish pace of registration has prompted Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein to warn that employers who dallied would pay the price in the future.

'Employers who register early will be given priority when in need of foreign workers in future. There is no favouritism. They registered early. So don't complain because they are given first priority,' he was quoted as saying by the Malaysian Insider news website.

This has drawn the ire of employers, who called the move arbitrary.

Mr Samsudin Baradan, executive director of the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF), said the two-week period to register workers was too short.

'Many employers are forced to send their workers who need to queue up as early as 6am and wait until 8pm sometimes,' he said.

Mr Samsudin said the MEF has asked for an extension of the deadline from the Immigration Department.

'After all, any extension will not do any harm to the government as these workers are already legal ones,' he said.

A businessman in the construction industry said it was not realistic to expect employers to pull workers off work sites to wait at immigration counters.

'Business is not done this way. Two weeks is not a reasonable time length. Do you expect foreign investors in manufacturing with sensitive schedules here to rush their workers for this registration exercise?' asked Mr Kwan Foh Kwai, president of the Master Builders Association of Malaysia.

He said some of the workers were based in remote areas far away from immigration offices and their outsourced agencies.

Mr Hishammuddin has remained non-committal on an extension, saying that the deadline stood at July 31.

'If we say we are going to extend the deadline, they (employers) may procrastinate further,' he said.

However, a senior Home Ministry officer said the government may consider doing so if those registered were far fewer than the estimated 1.75 million legal foreign workers.

Subsidies for SMEs to engage safety consultants

Straits Times, Jul 28, 2011
By Royston Sim

SMALL and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be able to tap a new programme to engage workplace safety consultants at a subsidised cost.

They will have at their disposal consultants from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), and get subsidies of up to 80 per cent to engage these experts.

MOM expects about 6,000 SMEs to apply for this help in the next three years.

The Assist programme is one of the initiatives funded by a $70 million kitty set aside to improve workplace safety education and research.

So far, about a third of the money, around $22million, has been disbursed to more than 2,000 SMEs for various projects to enhance workplace safety.

The national goal is to bring down the number of deaths for every 100,000 workers to 1.8 by 2018.

The figure dipped to an all-time low of 2.2 deaths per 100,000 workers last year, said Minister of State (Manpower and National Development) Tan Chuan-Jin yesterday.

Announcing the new programme, he noted that 30 workers had died on the job between January and June this year, up from 25 in the corresponding period last year.

Brigadier-General (NS) Tan, who was speaking at the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Awards ceremony held at Fairmont Singapore yesterday, said of those who lost their lives: 'Every individual was actually somebody's father, husband or wife... It means a lot. You cannot put a dollar value to that.'

He said the three-month-old WSH Institute will look into how work processes can be improved to enhance safety.

The institute was set up earlier this year to raise the skill levels of safety professionals as well as conduct research into workplace safety in Singapore.

For example, it will look into redesigning work processes on construction sites to minimise risks of falling from heights. It will also examine how workplace safety has played a critical role in the success of world-class organisations, and use these findings to inspire interest in safety among local companies.

The institute has also teamed up with Ngee Ann Polytechnic to develop a Train The Trainers programme, so workplace safety trainers can be kept abreast of the latest developments and issues.

BG Tan gave out WSH awards to 214 winners last night.

There were 430 or 16 per cent more applications for the awards this year, a record number.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event, BG Tan said: 'You have awards, all the different initiatives, but one key thing we really need to heed is that, at the end of it, it's really about people's lives.

'From MOM's perspective, our focus is very much on the people aspect... We are fully committed to ensuring that we look after our people and their well-being.'

Foreigners more likely to bar themselves from casinos

Straits Times, Jul 28, 2011
By Ng Kai Ling

MORE foreigners than Singaporeans are barring themselves from casinos after the application process was made easier for people from overseas.

About seven in 10 of all self-exclusion orders now in force are for those who are neither citizens nor permanent residents.

Applications by foreigners have shot up in the seven months since the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) started allowing them to apply online. As of last month, 12,660 had barred themselves, up from about 50 in November last year.

Most of these applications were done through companies who encouraged their foreign workers to apply after the council wrote to them earlier this year to tell them the orders could be set up digitally. Before that, foreigners could only file manual applications at its office in Thomson Road.

The new process prompted many companies to encourage their workers to sign up and help them with the paperwork.

Ms Eliza Fong, finance and human resource manager of HEC Electrical and Construction, said the firm held a talk for its staff on the dangers of gambling after reading reports of workers losing their hard-earned cash at the casinos.

'After the talk, some foremen and supervisors volunteered to sign up for the exclusion orders and the other workers followed,' she added. 'Almost all of our more than 200 workers signed up.'

Recruitment agent Tan Wee Kian said he makes a point of telling workers about the exclusion orders the moment they arrive and reminding them why they came to Singapore in the first place.

'I tell them 'You come here to make money, not lose your money in the casinos',' he said. 'They usually listen and sign up.'

NCPG chairman Lim Hock San said the council is 'heartened by the response to self-exclusion'. He added: 'Casino exclusions are an important safeguard not only for problem gamblers, but for the financially vulnerable as well.'

Dr Derek da Cunha, the author of Singapore Places Its Bets, a book on the social and economic impact of Singapore's casinos, said he was not surprised by the high number of self-exclusion orders as foreigners understand they are here to earn a living.

He added: 'For them to then squander their hard-earned money at the casinos is something where the consequences would be very profound, especially as they may not have the safety-net of family being around to subsidise their losses.'

The Migrant Workers Centre said it helps an average of about 10 foreign workers a month with their exclusion order applications. 'We expect the numbers to pick up as we organise more outreach events like roadshows and invite NCPG to man a booth to generate greater awareness of the ills of problem gambling,' said executive director Edwin Pang.

Dr da Cunha said the number of Singaporeans and permanent residents barred from the casinos by self-exclusion orders may not accurately reflect the extent of problem gambling here.

He said there may be some avid gamblers who do not want to exclude themselves for an entire year, the minimum period covered by the orders.

The author suggested that the NCPG introduce self-exclusion for shorter periods, such as one, three or six months. Avid gamblers would be more likely to opt for this, he said, adding: 'Visits spaced out this way would likely have a far less adverse impact on a gambler.'

The NCPG has been issuing exclusion orders since 2009. It declined to reveal the number who drop out after a year.

More than 18,000 people are currently excluded from casinos voluntarily. Another 613 are on family exclusion orders - where relatives apply for their loved ones to be excluded - and 28,516 are on third-party exclusion orders. These are imposed on undischarged bankrupts and those receiving public assistance.

Exclusion orders

# Self-exclusions by foreigners: 12,660

# Self-exclusions by Singaporeans and permanent residents: 5,389

# Exclusions by family members of gamblers: 613

# Automatic exclusions of bankrupts and those on public assistance: 28,516

Workers gather to demand overtime pay

The following article was published by Yahoo News on 28 July 2011.
By Jeanette Tan | SingaporeScene – Thu, Jul 28, 2011

Photo caption: A man brandishes his overtime pay, which he says is far less than what he should be entitled to, as other assembled …

Some 38 Chinese nationals congregated outside their former employer's home at Jalan Telang off Upper Thomson Road on Wednesday morning demanding payment for their overtime salary.

With police trying to mediate, they faced off the employer's wife, who tried in vain to turn them away, shouting at them and asking, "Why are you all here? Why are you causing trouble?"

Some of the workers also claimed that she gave them the thumbs-down sign repeatedly, adding that they felt very "insulted".

Their former employer, 35-year-old Yoga Naidu, eventually arrived some three hours later with their overtime salaries, dispensing cash and receipts between 1.15pm and close to 3pm.

He told The New Paper that his meeting with the workers was supposed to be later in the afternoon, at 2pm, at a public area near Bras Basah Complex, and that he did not expect them to turn up in the morning at his home address, which is also listed as his company's address.

Yoga also clarified that he was only distributing overtime payment, with this month's salary to be credited into their accounts early next month. Even then, many claimed they were getting far less than they should.

Photo caption: A worker tells Yoga Naidu (in grey, 2nd from right) that he should be getting much more in overtime pay. (Screengrab: …

36-year-old Duan Bo initially refused to accept his payment of about $300.

"I should be getting close to $1,000," he said. "Over the last few months, I've only rested one or two days each."

Upon Yoga's promise that he could be trusted to "settle it", however, the employee reluctantly took the money.

The workers were in Singapore on employment passes, providing cleaning services at hotels for more than a year under T Y Enterprise, a company that, according to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), is now being charged in court for not dispensing S-pass salaries by Giro. Yoga is the director of operations at the company.

It is also currently under investigation for allegations of falsely inflating their workers' salaries in order to qualify for employment passes, the paper reported.

The workers said they were owed their salary for this month and overtime pay from the past few months.

They were also told to stop working last week to assist in investigations at MOM, although they were not aware what exactly these investigations were.

One of them, 33-year-old Liang Zhi Ying, who worked at the St Regis Hotel since early last year, said she was told one day last week to stop and go to MOM.

"Everything was fine. I didn't know what was the matter," she said. "Honestly, I just want to get my money and go home."

It later emerged that T Y Enterprise has since been placed on a blacklist of firms banned from employing foreign workers.

The MOM also told the paper that it was aware of the dispute between Yoga and the Chinese workers, and explained that he was at the ministry recording his statement from ongoing investigations that morning, making him late for the meeting with the workers.

"This led to the misunderstanding by the workers that the employer refused to settle their salaries," said an MOM spokesperson, adding that it was notified by the police that the dispute had been resolved when Yoga turned up to hand out the overtime payments to the workers.

The spokesperson also said the ministry understands that Yoga will be making final overtime payments to the affected workers on 8 August at MOM.

Man accused of molesting his two maids

by Alvina Soh
TODAY, Jul 27, 2011

A 43-year-old man was charged today with seven counts of molesting his two Indonesian maids on various occasions in March, last year.

Ahmad Basiron, who is self-employed, allegedly outraged the modesty of the two maids, aged 24 and 25, at Langsat Road, off Still Road.

Besides being accused of molesting them, the slim and bespectacled man had allegedly kissed one of them on her thigh and allegedly appeared nude in front of her.

His case will be mentioned again on August 24.

If convicted, he can be jailed up to two years, or fined or caned.

LTA to review lorry passenger capacity

Straits Times, Jul 26, 2011

LORRY owners will not have to figure out how many passengers they can carry in the back of their vehicles by Aug 1.

Under safety rules that would have taken effect from that date, they were supposed to allocate more seating space for workers at the back of their lorries.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is now reviewing its previous requirement that lorry owners double the minimum deck space for each seated worker to 8 sq ft. Lorry owners were then supposed to show the new Maximum Passenger Capacity (MPC) label on their vehicles.

An LTA spokesman said some industry stakeholders have said that reducing maximum passenger capacity may lead to operational constraints.

She said the authority will carefully assess the feedback from various industry groups while balancing safety needs of workers.

Singapore Contractors Association (SCAL) president Ho Nyok Yong welcomed the news, and said 'it was a great relief'. He said some members were concerned because they may need to make more trips, leading to lower productivity.

Dr Ho noted that smaller contractors could not shoulder the financial burden of buying more vehicles or leasing buses to ferry workers.

Some SCAL members are even thinking of getting workers to take public transport to work sites, he said.

He added that his association has been actively educating its members about lorry safety.

For now, lorry owners will not have to change passenger capacity till LTA completes its review in the last quarter of this year and announces its decision.

During the review, LTA will also assess the effectiveness of measures already put in place to enhance the safety of workers being transported on the cargo deck of lorries.

From Feb 1, the LTA imposed higher fines and demerit points for lorry owners and drivers who flouted safety regulations.

Light lorries used to ferry workers also had to be fitted with canopies and higher side railings by then.

While the rule on MPC has been temporarily suspended, heavy lorries - those with maximum laden weight above 3,500kg - will still need to install higher side railings and canopies by Aug 1. Owners who fail to comply can be charged in court, and face a fine of up to $1,000 or a maximum jail term of three months.

Lorry-passenger deck space rule under review

TODAY, Jul 26, 2011

SINGAPORE - While heavy lorries transporting workers on cargo decks will need to put in place fittings to enhance workers' safety by next month, the authorities are for now not requiring a doubling of the minimum deck space per seated worker on both light and heavy lorries.

This follows feedback from employers, and a further review of this measure will be conducted, said the Land Transport Authority (LTA) in a statement yesterday.

In the meantime, it would do a stock-take and assess the effectiveness of the measures already put in place in enhancing the safety and welfare of workers being transported on the cargo deck of lorries, the LTA added.

As the measure is being reviewed, lorry owners are not required to recalculate the Maximum Passenger Capacity (MPC) nor change their vehicles' MPC label by next month.

Meanwhile, heavy lorries transporting workers must be fitted with higher railings and canopies by next month - part of measures progressively rolled out since 2009.

Lorry owners and employers have been given adequate time - from July last year - to make the necessary adjustments, said the LTA.

Mr Colin Lim, the LTA's group director for Vehicle and Transit Licensing Group, said: "LTA is committed to ensuring the safety of workers transported on lorries. For companies and lorry owners who can make the switch to safer modes of transport, we encourage them to do so as soon as they can."

The LTA said enforcement action will continue to be stepped up to deter any non-compliance of the regulations.

Nurses' pay to be reviewed

The following article was published by CNA on 25 July 2011.
By Hetty Musfirah

SINGAPORE: Health Minister Gan Kim Yong has said his ministry is currently undertaking a review of salaries for nurses in Singapore.

He said this is to make sure salaries remain competitive and to attract more locals to the profession.

Mr Gan was speaking to reporters as he celebrated Nurses Day with nurses from Jurong Health Services on Monday.

He said: "We will have to review the nurses' remuneration as well as the terms of employment, conditions of employment in workplaces.

"We need to take a more comprehensive review - not just about salary - to see how we can lighten their workload, to make sure their workload is more rewarding, and provide more career opportunities.

"As I have mentioned, we already have three career pathways - we will have to see how we can enhance them."

Mr Gan said he hopes that when more locals join the profession, they will be able to take on more important roles and functions in the hospitals.

Stakeholders say any adjustments in salaries are expected to help address the current manpower crunch, even though the sector's attrition rate has gone down from 12 per cent in 2005 to 9 per cent in 2010.

The Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in Jurong, for example, requires about 1,400 nurses when it opens its doors in 2014. But its management has only recruited about 640 nurses so far.

One-in-two of the hospital's nurses are foreigners, while the national average is currently 1-in-5 of some 30,000 nurses here.

However, the hospital is optimistic it will be able to make up the shortage and welcomes the salaries review.

Ms Kuttiammal Sundarasan, director of nursing for Alexandra Hospital and Jurong Health Services, said: "These days, our nurses' role (has) expanded and I think it is timely that our nurses' (pay) is being reviewed.

"They want more training opportunities - our locals actually want to be better educated now, they just don't want to stop at diploma, they want to have degrees and masters. So we need to actually publicise and tell them there are plenty of those opportunities."

To address the shortage of nurses, the hospital is also looking into re-employing more older nurses who have reached the age of 62.

Mr Gan said with the re-employment law kicking in next year, hospitals should also further explore how they can retain nurses who retire at 62.

Separately, he said the ministry is also assessing whether some projects need to be brought forward to address the hospital bed crunch.

He said one possibility is to bring forward the completion of Sengkang General Hospital, which is currently slated to open in 2020.

Firms face wage pressure as workers expect more because of inflation

by Teo Xuanwei
TODAY, Jul 25, 2011

SINGAPORE - Business opportunities for Mr Ong Teck Soon are abundant now, as companies rush to him for e-supply chain solutions to raise their efficiency amid the tight labour market.

But meeting the business orders is a challenge for him as his business is also hit by the labour crunch.

Said the chief executive of SESAMi and Abecha: "The higher labour costs have increased our business costs, so profit margin is definitely affected."

Teho Ropes & Supplies managing director Lim See Hoe told Today that he has had to offer up to 3 per cent more in pay raises this year because of inflation expectations.

"Employees are all expecting more because of higher costs, so we feel the pressure to be competitive to pay more to attract and keep staff," he said.

Last Thursday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore raised its inflation forecast for this year to between 4 and 5 per cent from between 3 and 4 per cent.

Faced with rising costs and a burgeoning wage bill, businesses are under pressure to increase prices.

With the Republic at full employment - the unemployment rate stands at just 1.9 per cent - could the economy be headed towards a wage-price spiral, thus driving up inflation further?

Economists told Today that the issue is worth monitoring but that the risks for now are low given the economic woes in the West and the Republic's aggressive productivity drive.

CIMB Research's Mr Song Seng Wun noted that the uncertainties shrouding the United States and European economies are making some businesses more cautious in their expansion, recruitment and pricing decisions.

"This will alleviate the wage pressure somewhat in the near term," said Mr Song. "If we hadn't had the kind of external factors which pose downside risks to growth, then perhaps yes, (a wage-price spiral) might happen."

Mr Manu Bhaskaran, adjunct senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, said that he expects global growth to slow, thus taking the wind out of the Singapore economy in the next 12 months.

He added: "With the lag effects of MAS' monetary tightening ... we should see demand ease and inflationary risks eventually diminish.

"However, if global demand recovers as some think, then we could see intensifying inflationary risks."

DBS economist Irvin Seah noted that higher productivity, which would mitigate increases in wage costs, would also keep a lid on price increases.

To that end, the tightening of the foreign worker policy actually serves as a spur for businesses to raise productivity to keep their labour costs stable, he said.

"Cheaper foreign labour discourages companies to invest in technology or measures to enhance their efficiency, so letting fewer foreign workers in is a short-term pain to bear in return for longer-term gain in productivity and economic growth," said Mr Seah.

UOB senior economist Alvin Liew said the strong tripartite relations here would also help keep a wage-price spiral at bay.

"The National Wages Council has a role to play in recommending wage movements," he said.

"In any case, if wage pressures are too high, the Government can easily turn the tap (to allow foreign workers in) on again. The Government is not without credible tools to address this problem."

Agreeing, Mr Song said while there are currently political impediments to relaxing foreign labour policy - the influx of foreigners was a hot-button issue at the recent General Election - the Government will not "constrain businesses' access to labour at the risk of undermining economic growth".

More than 300 arrested in CID raids

Straits Times, Jul 25, 2011
By TEH JOO LIN

THE Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has been making a show of force this month, leading three weekend raids that have resulted in more than 300 arrests for various crimes.

In the latest operation this past weekend, the CID - along with officers from the Singapore Customs, Central Narcotics Bureau and other parts of the police force - arrested 111 people.

More than half were women.

The suspects, aged between 19 and 60, were arrested in entertainment outlets and back alleys in eight locations including Jurong, Geylang and Orchard Road.

They comprised Singaporeans and foreigners from the region who are believed to be linked to gang activities, employment-related offences or vice.

In the first weekend of this month, the CID led another islandwide operation that yielded 144 arrests for offences that included gang activities, contraband cigarette peddling, employment-related infringements and vice.

The next weekend, CID officers swooped in on another 59 people - aged between 17 and 57 - while they were at various pubs, shopping centres and coffee shops. They were suspected of gang involvement.

Following the latest weekend raid, CID director Hoong Wee Teck commended the officers for their coordination and teamwork.

He said: 'We are determined to keep Singapore safe and will keep up the pressure on all such criminal elements who think they can make a living by flouting the law.

'This includes foreigners who come to Singapore with ill intentions.'

Avoid resorting to strong-arm tactics against foreign workers

Straits Times, Forum, Jul 23, 2011

MANY employers often resort to companies that provide repatriation services to deport 'troublesome' workers or prevent them from lodging legitimate claims with the Ministry of Manpower ('MOM 'will protect rights of foreign workers''; July 14).

The activities of such companies are illegal and therefore, the authorities should order them to cease their operations completely.

Repatriation companies employ strong-arm tactics by deploying men to seize a worker and lock him in a room until the day of his departure.

During the confinement, the worker may be assaulted or threatened. He is usually told that if he refuses to leave the country, he may be blacklisted by the ministry, or he may become an illegal overstayer and be punished by caning.

Such threats are effective because the ministry bans workers based on negative feedback from employers. Moreover, Singapore's strict laws against immigration offenders frighten workers into agreeing to repatriation.

When workers pluck up the courage to seek police help, their complaints of forced confinement may go unheeded.

Our social workers have tried unsuccessfully to free some of these workers through the police.

Employers often cite the fear of losing their $5,000 security bond to justify the services of repatriation companies. But by doing so, employers are taking shortcuts in handling workplace conflicts. Any employment dispute should be settled by the ministry.

Jolovan Wham
Executive Director
Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics

Ego hurt more grievous than grievous hurt

The following article was first posted on Yawning Bread on 21 July 2011.

Given a choice of being faced with someone intent on an act of physical violence and being inconvenienced by someone mounting a peaceful protest, I think most of us would consider the first a greater threat to our sense of security.

In Court No. 4 of the Subordinate Courts Complex today (21 July 2011), I had cause to wonder if the state might think differently. Does it view protest more seriously than violence? If so, how does law serve the true interest of the public?

* * * * *

Upon their names being called, a slim young man and a pint-sized woman, fashionably dressed in black, were ushered by policemen from their seats at the back of the court room into the dock. There they joined Yang Wei, a Chinese national who minutes earlier had been led there in handcuffs, wearing a T-shirt with “Prisoner” stencilled across the back.

With District Judge Low Wee Ping saying he would deal with the young man first, he was asked to stand.

In the echoey court, it was hard to catch all that the prosecutor and defence lawyer said, but it appeared that the accused had pleaded guilty to Section 322 of the Penal Code at a previous hearing, and that today would only be about sentencing. Even so, the prosecutor recounted the key facts of the case in order to establish the gravity of the offence. Section 322 is for voluntarily causing grievous hurt, and comes with a maximum sentence of ten years jail with the possibility of a fine and caning.

He had apparently gone to a coffeeshop with one other guy and the girl to participate in an affray. Unlike the other guy (if I heard the prosecutor correctly), the young man had no demonstrable grievance with anyone in the coffeeshop; it appears he went there to help his friend in the fight. In the course of it, he used a broken beer bottle as a weapon, and one of the two victims suffered a bleeding wound near his eye. The prosecutor stressed that his participation in the fight was premeditated.

His defence lawyer offered little by way of mitigation, except that he had no previous conviction and he was remorseful.

The judge asked the prosecution why the accused faced only one charge when there were two victims. The prosecution could not explain it except to say that the investigators must have had their reasons. The young man was then sentenced to four weeks’ imprisonment.

The girl was also in court for the same incident, likewise facing a charge under Section 322 of the Penal Code. In her case however, two factors stood out: she was still a minor, and she had a previous conviction for theft, for which (if I heard correctly) she had been given two years’ probation. The prosecution recommended that she be further considered for probation for this incident and the judge agreed. He set an August date to hear a report about her suitability for probation.

The two were then led away from the dock, leaving Yang Wei there to hear his case taken up next.

* * * * *


This 27-year-old construction worker from China made the news on the morning of Monday, 4 July 2011, when he went to his employer’s worksite in Changi South, climbed a 30-metre tall crane and refused to come down till he was paid what he felt he was owed. (Straits Times, 7 July 2011, Worker charged over crane stunt in pay protest. Today newspaper, 7 July 2011, Disgruntled worker charged with trespass, by Alvina Soh)

The police and officials from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) were called, and an MOM officer had to climb up to negotiate with him. A company representative also went up with $5,000 cash in hand.

After being persuaded to come down (about two hours later) he was charged with Criminal Trespass under Section 441 of the Penal Code. The maximum penalty specified by the statute is 3 months’ jail or a fine of up to $1,500 or both.

At a previous hearing on 14 July, Yang had pleaded guilty, so this hearing on 21 July was for sentencing.

Yang’s defence counsels, a three-man team led by Gregory Vijayendran from law firm Rajah and Tann working on a pro bono basis, submitted a written mitigation plea comprising more than 60 points on the morning of the hearing. It pointed out that Yang was suffering from “overwhelming emotional stress” arising from “deprivation of monies owed to him”. He had felt that his employers were unfairly withholding what was due to him amounting to about $5,000 comprising unpaid sums from overtime work, leave pay, deductions for airfare, the cost of which should have been the employers to bear, and medical bills he had to pay himself when it was the employer’s responsibility.

(Defence counsel did not mention, at least not verbally in court, that exacerbating the issue in Yang’s mind, was that MOM officials whom he had approached for assistance had not only been unhelpful, but rude to him. Yang did not think he would make any headway if he relied on MOM.)

He was also under severe stress due to family circumstances, said his lawyers. His mother had suffered a brain haemorrhage with no prospect of recovery. His own matrimonial situation was deteriorating and he was the sole breadwinner for the family.

Furthermore, his own relationship with his employer had gotten off on the wrong foot. “He came to Singapore in June 2010 on the basis of certain statements by recruiting agents” that there’d be a proper contract made out under Singapore law. But when he arrived, he was told by the employer that “there’d be no contract, and that if he was unhappy, he could go back.” This was not possible, since, having paid his recruiter, he was starting off from a position of debt.

As for the incident itself, defence lawyers argued that although Yang had transgressed the law, he caused no damage. “He did not go there to damage or destroy equipment. In essence it was a peaceable protest.”

Defence lawyers asked the court to consider a light penalty, perhaps just a fine.

At about this point, the judge asked who now had the $5,000 that was offered to him at the top of the crane. Did Yang have it? Did he take the money? Defence counsel told the court that he did, though as with all the personal possessions he had on him at the time of arrest, it was being kept by the police (or prison authorities?) for the duration of his sentence.

Then the judge said something else to defence counsel which I couldn’t catch, but piecing together what I heard afterwards, I believe he said something to the effect that at this point, having money to go home with was the most important concern for Yang Wei, and that if counsel pressed for a fine, it might not be in his best interest.

When it was the prosecutor’s turn to speak, Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Lim argued that the court should be imposing a deterrent sentence. Calling what he did “reprehensible conduct”, she said Yang had “proper legal recourse through MOM. . . and therefore should not do what he did.” Police resources were utilised that morning, resources “that could have been better deployed elsewhere”.

“A strong message needs to be sent to all workers in Singapore that they should not resort to such acts,” she told the court. It would be a “dangerous precedent” if the court did not impose a stiff custodial sentence. “Employees can threaten disruption if there’s a dispute” and it would be “no good for the climate of employment here”.

I was disappointed that no one reminded the court that labour strikes are considered legitimate tools in many countries.

The prosecutor then brought up another case for comparison in order to guide the court in sentencing. Zhao Er Hui, 32, made a complaint to MOM in late March 2009 about salary arrears, but on 1 April, after a meeting at the ministry, he went up to the roof of the seven-storey building instead of leaving. There he called his employer and the police, threatening to kill himself by jumping off. He was charged for Criminal Trespass and sentenced to ten weeks’ jail (Straits Times, 26 May 2009, Chinese worker jailed for attempted suicide, by Elena Chong).

In the light of this precedent, Lim asked the court to impose eight weeks’ imprisonment on Yang.

Vijayendran countered that Zhao’s case had a key difference from Yang Wei’s. Zhao used emotional blackmail by phoning the employer and the police and threatening to jump. Yang, on the other hand, merely sat in the cage atop the crane and refused to move.

In the end, the judge sentenced him to five week’s imprisonment, backdated to when he was first charged, on 6 July 2011, since when he had been in remand. With one-third remission for good behaviour, he would have to serve a total of about 23 or 24 days, which means he should be released on or around 29 July. He will be deported immediately. I’m told that his airticket to Beijing has already been bought.

See also Worker jailed five weeks for criminal trespass, by Shaffiq Alkhatib, Channel NewsAsia.

* * * * *

Compare the two cases. A young man with no prior conviction, in the company of others and armed with a broken beer bottle, attacks two other persons with whom he had no demonstrable grievance. One victim is injured. The assailant is given four weeks in jail.

Another man, in his twenties, also with no prior conviction, mounts a lonely protest, but makes no threat to anyone else. He is given five weeks in jail even though he had plenty of demonstrable grievances that argue for mitigation.

This is not to say the judge was capricious. He was careful to ask lawyers in the courtroom to raise comparable cases, so that he could consider them and apply the principle of parity in sentencing. He himself was sympathetic to Yang’s situation. But the problem is that considerations of parity in sentencing only apply among cases of a similar nature prosecuted under the same or similar laws. In the fighting case, judge and lawyers referred to other fighting cases. In the protest case, they referred to other protest cases that involved trespass.

It seems to me that perhaps over time, there has been creep. Cases involving violence have generally attracted lenient sentences while those involving protest have attracted tougher ones, and when the legal profession only considers sentencing within each separate stream of offences, it perpetuates this disparity. Yet, the reasonable person can see that parity considerations conducted exclusively within offence categories is too legalistic by half. There is such a thing as moral comparability, and the two cases today appear to fail this test.

Why has creep occurred? This is a question worth discussing. The obvious thing that comes to mind is that we have a state that lays great store by preserving the dignity of itself, its officers and such other sectors (e.g. employers) which it considers valuable. Even if the state’s processes (e.g. dispute resolution in the Ministry of Manpower) are dysfunctional, even if favoured sectors behave less than at their best, it tends to overlook them. But come the slightest resistance, protest or defiance, especially from its social inferiors, it responds with a heavy hand. Built case by case, the sentencing norm is pushed up.

In short, we have created a political culture where insulting the self-assigned status of rulers and their power structures is viewed more seriously than mayhem on streets and in coffeeshops.

Let me mention a third case. Alan Shadrake published a book in which he argued that the independence and impartiality of our judiciary was questionable. He fought no one with a broken beer bottle. He caused no disruption to any worksite by climbing a crane. He was sentenced to six weeks in jail. And fined S$20,000.

5 weeks' jail for crane-top protester

Straits Times, Jul 22, 2011
Fine only would encourage others to threaten employers likewise: Judge
By Khushwant Singh

Photo caption: Chinese national Yang Wei being led away by the police on July 4 (above). He had earlier climbed to the top of a 30m-tall crane and came down only two hours later upon receiving $5,000, which he claimed his then employer owed him. -- SHIN MIN FILE PHOTOS

A CHINESE national who perched himself atop a 30m-tall crane and refused to come down until a pay dispute was settled was jailed for five weeks yesterday.

A district court agreed with the prosecution that Yang Wei, 27, had a lawful avenue to resolve his problem, but instead chose to break the law by trespassing on a construction site where his employer was a subcontractor.

District Judge Low Wee Ping said imposing only a fine on Yang would invite other workers to threaten their employers with acts not in accordance with the law.

Yang pleaded guilty last week to trespassing into the Nakano construction site at Changi South Avenue 2 on the morning of July 4. There, he climbed to the top of a crane and threatened to stay put until his demands were met.

He came down nearly two hours later, upon receiving $5,000, which he claimed his then employer, Zhong Jiang International, owed him in overtime pay, medical expenses and repatriation costs.

The court heard Yang did what he did despite knowing that his dispute with Zhong Jiang had already gone to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for resolution and was being looked into.

His lawyer Gregory Vijayendran argued that a fine would suffice, as his client was under 'overwhelming emotional stress' from personal problems as well.

In addition to the pay dispute, Yang and his wife in China were going through a divorce, and his mother had been semi-paralysed by a recent stroke. Mr Vijayendran also said his client was too anxious to wait for MOM to iron out the matter and wanted to return home to Beijing immediately.

The lawyer added that Yang had carried out a 'peaceful protest', and had neither damaged property nor disrupted work on the site.

Asked by the judge whether Yang was free to keep the $5,000, Mr Vijayendran replied that Zhong Jiang had not asked for it back.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Lim, arguing for Yang to be jailed for eight weeks, pointed out that police and civil defence resources had been wasted dealing with the incident.

She said the prosecution had no information on whether Zhong Jiang really owed Yang that sum of money.

At the close of the hearing, Judge Low thanked Mr Vijayendran and Ms Sheela Kumari Devi of Rajah & Tann for taking the case on a pro bono basis.

Yang could have been fined up to $1,500 and jailed up to three months for criminal trespass.

5 weeks in jail for criminal trespass

by Shaffiq Alkhatib
TODAY, Jul 22, 2011

SINGAPORE - A construction worker embroiled in a pay dispute was jailed five weeks yesterday for criminal trespass after climbing to a crane tower control cage 30m above ground to air his grievances.

Yang Wei, 27, could have lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Manpower after he had claimed his employer had not paid him his salary of S$5,000.

But on July 4, the Chinese national took matters into his own hands, entering a construction site at Changi South Ave 2 and climbed up the crane.

He had refused to come down, even after a safety coordinator at the site, Mr Tang Yee Chiang, 34, climbed up to him and tried to convince him to come down from the crane.

Yang told him that Zhong Jiang International owed him money and had also shortchanged him on his salary and medical claims.

He was placated only after the company handed the money to him.

Yang was represented by lawyers Sheela Kumari Devi and Gregory Vijayendran who did not charge him for their services.

Mr Vijayendran told District Judge Low Wee Ping that their client committed the offence due to overwhelming emotional stress.

The lawyer said Yang was the sole breadwinner of his family and had a sick mother who was semi-paralysed.

The S$5,000 is now with the authorities and will be returned to Yang after his release, said Mr Vijayendran, who asked for a light custodial sentence.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Lim however had pressed for a deterrent one of at least eight weeks' jail, to send out a strong message to other workers that they should not resort to similar tactics to resolve disputes.

Worker jailed five weeks for criminal trespass

The following article was posted by CNA on 21 July 2011.
By Shaffiq Alkhatib

SINGAPORE: Twenty-seven-year-old construction worker, Yang Wei, could have lodged a complaint with the Manpower Ministry after his employer did not pay him his salary of S$5,000.

Instead, the China national took matters into his own hands on July 4.

He entered a construction site at Changi South Avenue 2, climbed up to a crane tower control cage 30 metres above the ground and refused to come down until he received the money.

Yang was Thursday sentenced to five weeks' jail for criminal trespass.

A safety coordinator at the construction site, 34-year-old Tang Yee Chiang, spotted him in the cage and told him to come down.

When Yang refused, Mr Tang climbed up to him and tried to convince him to return to safety.

Yang told him that Zhong Jiang International owed him money and had also shortchanged him on salary as well as medical claims.

Soon after this, Mr Tang contacted the site's supervisor, Ding Jia Gen, who was employed by the same company, informing him about the situation.

Forty-three-year-old Mr Ding asked his main office to prepare the money.

One of his colleagues then handed it over to a placated Yang who climbed down from the cage.

Lawyers, Ms Sheela Kumari Devi and Mr Gregory Vijayendran represented Yang in court.

Mr Vijayendran told District Judge Low Wee Ping that their client committed the offence due to "overwhelming emotional stress".

The lawyer added that Yang is the sole breadwinner of his family and has a sick mother who is semi-paralysed and asked for a light custodial sentence.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Lim however pressed for a deterrent one of at least eight weeks' jail.

She said this would send out a strong message to other workers that they should not resort to similar tactics to resolve their disputes.

The S$5,000 owed to Yang is now with the authorities and will be returned to him after his release.

- CNA/cc

To improve crane safety ...

by S Ramesh
TODAY, Jul 20, 2011

SINGAPORE - From September, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will be rolling out new initiatives to improve crane safety at workplaces.

A new set of regulations governing crane operations will kick in, with enhancements to the way lifting works are planned.

Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Manpower Hawazi Daipi announced this yesterday at the opening of the Construction Safety, Health and Security campaign organised by the Singapore Contractors' Association.

Mr Hawazi noted that while the number of crane-related fatalities remained "small", there were already 14 dangerous occurrences involving cranes this year. This is slightly more than half of the 26 cases last year, he added.

"While the 14 cases did not result in any injuries or deaths, these occurrences have the potential of causing great harm to workers and the public," Mr Hawazi said.

He explained that the new regulations would stipulate the requirement for a comprehensive lifting plan to be developed and implemented before a lifting operation could be carried out. The lifting plan takes into account the dimensions of the load, the intended load radius of the lifting equipment and how the lifting team communicates.

Yesterday, the MOM also issued a new code of practice for safe lifting operations at workplaces, aimed at helping industry players plan and implement lifting plans. They can follow the guidance from the code as well as the checklists provided.

Mr Hawazi noted the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) performance in the first half of this year had improved for the construction sector.

The number of fatalities had dropped from 15 in the first half of last year to 11 in the first half of this year. During the same period, the number of permanent disablements also fell from 22 to 13.

The MOM has also stepped up on enforcement activities on crane operations. The most recent was "Operation Sandpiper", carried out between May and June, when MOM officers checked over 50 sites on the safety of lifting operations during piling work.

Some 80 violations were found and S$30,000 in compound fines issued. Top contraventions identified included improper rigging methods, faulty safety devices or lifting gear and poor maintenance of the crane or lifting machines.

The findings showed more can be done by the industry to improve the safety of crane operations at worksites, said Mr Hawazi.

Foreigners offer to 'pay' for employment passes

Straits Times, Jul 19, 2011
They will 'return' part of salary for pass allowing dependants in
By Melissa Kok & Amanda Tan

EMPLOY us and we will 'pay' you.

That offer was made to Mr Henn Tan, owner of a local technology firm, when he interviewed two men - a Myanmarese and a Filipino in their 20s. They had applied to work as a webmaster and a software engineer respectively.

The jobs, which pay at least $3,500 a month, would have earned them Employment Passes (EPs) here.

When told they were not qualified for the positions, they offered Mr Tan, 54, a deal: they would 'return' half their salaries to him each month, as long as he hired them on EPs.

Some foreigners are allegedly offering to return part of their salaries to prospective bosses if they are hired on the coveted EP, which now requires applicants to earn more in order to qualify.

EP holders - often graduates working in professional, managerial or specialist jobs - are allowed to bring their spouses and children to Singapore on Dependant's Passes.

Recounting the incident, which took place in April, Mr Tan, chief executive of Trek 2000 International, said: 'They told me if I allowed them to be hired on EP, they would 'kick back' the balance to me.' He rejected the offer.

But not all have stood firm. In the first three months of this year, five employers of EP and S Pass holders - usually mid-skilled workers - were taken to task for making false declarations in their work pass applications, said the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).

False declarations could include inflated salaries and forged qualifications.

One employer was fined $5,000, while the rest were jailed between one and six months. Several others are currently being investigated.

In the first nine months of last year, 141 foreigners were convicted for lying in their work pass applications, up from 137 in the whole of 2009. MOM did not provide updated figures.

Seven out of 10 recruitment firms interviewed by The Straits Times said they had heard of such under-the-table deals.

In some cases, employers had artificially 'inflated' salaries so they could hire more foreigners. There is no cap on the number of EP holders a firm can hire - unlike lower-tier S Pass or work permit holders, who are subject to quotas.

Mr Lawrence Leow, president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, said foreigners offering kickbacks to employers in order to qualify for EPs was 'new to me'. But he added: 'I'm not surprised, especially now that it's harder to get approval for the passes.'

Under new rules which came into effect this month, foreign hires must earn $2,800 a month to qualify for the EP, up from $2,500 previously. S Pass applicants are also required to earn $2,000 a month, up from $1,800.

As of last year, there were 142,000 EP holders, up from 115,000 in 2009. The number of S Pass holders has grown from about 44,000 in 2007 to 98,000 as at the end of last year.

Observers say there may be more instances of such under-the-table deals than reported.

'There are definitely more errant companies with such practices. But many cases don't come to light as workers fear losing their jobs,' said Mr Jolovan Wham, executive director of migrant worker welfare group Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home).

'Even when employers are found out, they push the blame to the workers, saying that a worker forged academic certificates making him eligible for a higher-tier work pass.'

In the first six months of this year, at least 12 workers in such a situation have approached Home for help, compared with 14 workers last year, he said.

Mr Edwin Pang, executive director of the Migrant Workers Centre, said foreign workers may agree to an arrangement due to a miscommunication or misunderstanding. 'He may agree, thinking that his employment agent knows best, not realising that he is infringing regulations.'

Day in the life of a migrant worker in Singapore

The following article was published by CNN on 19 July 2011.

In the first installment of a two-part series, photojounalist Kate Hodal captures the life of an out-of-work Bangladeshi worker and a domestic helper from the Philippines
By Kate Hodal 19 July, 2011
What keeps Singapore running like a well-oiled machine?

The housekeepers, construction workers, dock workers, gardeners, street cleaners and countless other migrant workers who call Singapore home.

Often invisible to the average eye. I sought to capture fragments of their experiences here, snapshots into their daily lives, by asking them what just one day is like in their shoes.

Mirroring the individuality of their experiences here, I shot each of the interviewees with a different camera, with the results somewhat of a "gamble" -- a word many of my interviewees used to describe their own experience here in Singapore.

This is the first of a two-part series.

Davy, 41, domestic worker from the Philippines

One in six homes in Singapore has domestic help, according to recent government figures, with Filipinas comprising around one-third of the 201,000 domestic workers who call the Little Red Dot home.

Davy, 41, from Ilo Ilo, Philippines, came to Singapore 16 years ago and has seen many of the city-state's changes at first hand.


From 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. Monday to Saturday, Davy, cooks, cleans and gardens for her employers, for whom she has been working for the past 16 years.

But her "real" work lasts from 10 p.m. until 1 a.m., and all day Sunday, when she serves as a de facto counsellor to domestic workers of any nationality, for free.

"Sometimes they're pregnant or don't have enough food or haven't slept enough or don't get any days off," says Davy. "I listen to their problems and sometimes refer them to a shelter if they really want to run away."

"For the pregnant ones, I always tell them, 'If you want to make yourself happy by playing around, then be safe -- use contraceptives.'"

"At the end of the day, we all have desires, but I've turned mine outwards to helping others, so I don't get frustrated with my life here."


"Singapore wasn't at all like what I expected," explains mother-of-two Davy, who left behind her job as a legal secretary, as well as her 11-month-old daughter and five-year-old son, to the care of her husband and mother in 1995.

"I was only 25. I was so scared, I didn't have any time off and I didn't know what to do when I did. So I started reading to pass the time."

Often spending hours at a time at Borders Bookstore in Wheelock Place, Davy figures she's read 3,000-odd books in the last 16 years -- ranging from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" to crime thrillers by Patricia Cornwall.

Now, she has her own plans as an author: "Our stories as domestic workers are very colorful, and they need to be told."


Remittance centres in the many malls of Singapore, like the one Davy frequents in Lucky Plaza, are at their busiest at the weekends, when many of the migrant workers who are allowed a day off send money home.

Davy sends 70 percent of her S$550 per month salary home to the Philippines every month, a budget which has allowed her to send each of her six siblings, as well as her two children (now aged 14 and 19) to school and college.

"My greatest achievement was when my youngest brother graduated as an accountant," Davy says. "Now he works at the biggest accounting firm in Manila. I tell him, 'Now you earn good money, you have to save it for when your sisters' kids go to college. They need you.'"


Every other Sunday of the month, Davy runs Enrichment Programme workshops at a local charity called Transient Workers Count Too (www.twc2.org.sg), where she teaches other migrant workers basic computer skills.

"Many migrant workers don't know that basic computer programmes -- like Yahoo Messenger, Facebook and Skype -- can help them stay connected for free to family members back home," she says. "It's much better than relying on the phone, and it helps us, as workers, feel like we're learning valuable skills for ourselves."


"I like learning new things, it keeps me alive," says Davy, in between choreography sessions, at a new bi-monthly Sunday hip-hop class, which is partially sponsored by local charity Migrant Voices (www.migrantvoices.org).

"I tell my kids about my hip-hop class and they laugh at me. I talk to them every day, we tell each other everything, because when I see them at the end of every two-year contract, I am shocked."

"They grow up so fast, the way they dress, think and communicate. They actually told me not to buy them anything anymore, because they said I always get it wrong."

"So sad, lah! But that's life. When I move back to live there again, maybe in a couple of years, I think things will be different."

Photographs were shot with a Sony A-290.

Shafiqul, 36, out-of-work construction worker from Bangladesh

Of the roughly 1.25 million migrant workers here on special employment passes, there are no official figures for the number out of work due to medical or legal problems.

But some 2,500 workers sought assistance for these very reasons from workers' rights charities HOME and Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), from 2006 to 2010.

Former construction worker Shafiqul, 36, from Bangladesh, is currently seeking damages for an accident he incurred at work in 2010.


A former factory worker in Dhaka, Shafiqul looks over his doctor's notes: the Bangladeshi native has been unemployed and unemployable for the past 18 months, after a wall that he was tearing down on a building site toppled him onto the ground.

His left shoulder was dislocated, his elbow torn open, and his spine twisted under the weight of the rubble.


After being treated for his injuries at Singapore General Hospital (SGH), Shafiqul was surprised to find his former boss -- along with "three Tamil gangsters" -- looking for him at midnight at his dormitory.

"They come to chase me away back to Bangladesh," Shafiqul explained to me in May. Such scare tactics are a fairly common occurrence for many migrant workers in Singapore, according to charity TWC2.

Unemployed and unable to pay rent, Shafiqul began sleeping in MRT stations and doorways around Farrer Park. He is now awaiting medical compensation from his former employer, via a manpower ministry-appointed lawyer.


Shafiqul's first spinal operation was in December 2010, six months after his initial injury on the job.

This June, Shafiqul was readmitted to SGH for a second surgery, this one to fuse together two of his lower discs. Here, according to the inclinometer prior to the surgery, Shafiqul's spine operates at 30 to 60 percent less than average.


Shafiqul's surgery lasted four hours and bonded together two of his lower discs with a metal rod. His surgery -- estimated at S$30,000 -- is being paid for by his former employer, with whom Shafiqul is in both legal and medical dispute.

One SGH staff member, speaking anonymously, said she she can admit around 10 to 15 migrant worker patients a day, many of them with "dodgy paperwork" issued by their former employers.


Here, Shafiqul, who regularly sent money home to provide for his parents, siblings and new wife, does physical therapy exercises after the insertion of a 10-centimeter metal rod in his lower spine.

"What work I find now? I cannot carry more than five kilos, doctor say, for the rest of my life," says Shafiqul. "One person problem is now come to seven person problem. I want to go back home and start again."

As of the publication of these photographs, Shafiqul is still in hospital post-surgery. The photographs were shot with a Holga using 35mm film.

The second part of this series will be published on CNNGo on Thursday July 21.

A selection of the "A Day in the Life" photographs will be on display at the Goodman Arts Centre (90 Goodman Road, tel +65 63469400) from July 16 to 23, as part of the City Limits Gallery project. Go to facebook for more information.

Read more: Day in the life of a migrant worker in Singapore #2 | CNNGo.com http://www.cnngo.com/singapore/life/day-life-migrant-worker-singapore-584560?page=0,1#ixzz1SWUoGdrl

A sympathetic view on maids - from Britain

Straits Times, Jul 19, 2011

I AM struck by the views about employment rights for maids in Singapore. I left Singapore for Britain about 20 years ago, but my family and I return home frequently to visit my parents and friends - and we cannot help observing interactions between families here and their maids.

We have seen maids carrying heavy bags during family outings. We have seen maids at hawkers centres who stand throughout the family meal, often feeding the baby in the high chair. We have seen maids carrying school bags and sports kits for children aged 10 to 13.

However, we have also seen maids who are very much part of the family, treated with respect and kindness.

In Britain, some families rely on nannies and au pairs - live-in students of the English language who provide simple domestic help - to support working parents. But this is not typical as many families cannot afford such help. The local authorities provide home help and care for the disabled and the elderly. It is unusual for hired home help to not have a day off a week and not have non-working hours each day.

Singapore has come far in its young history, in terms of its economy, health care, education, social order and lifestyle. While we appreciate the benefits of growing affluence, we must not forget humility. The maids have left their own families in other countries to live with Singapore families, providing childcare, housekeeping and home help, among other things, on very long hours. We must not forget that they are human beings.

Dr Jeya Balakrishna

My stroke-ridden mum comes first

Straits Times, Forum, Jul 19, 2011

MY MOTHER suffered a stroke and has been relying on a maid for the past 13 years. When I renewed the maid's passport at the Indonesian Embassy, the officer knew I could not allow a day off for her, and this was recorded in the document the maid signed.

My concern regarding the suggestion by Minister of State (Community Development, Youth and Sports) Halimah Yacob ('Consider law to give maids a day off every week: Halimah'; June 20) is that if maids are entitled to a weekly day off, who will take care of my mother?

My mother prefers to stay indoors, so what happens if the maid finds a boyfriend on her days off and sneaks him into my home?

Teaching the maid to handle medication, massage, bathe and carry my mother takes time, effort and familiarisation. As a filial son, how can I be expected to rely on temporary, untrained help for my mother? And even if this is available, what about the steep cost?

Each individual's needs differ, so let him decide if he needs a maid for five, six or seven days a week. Make agencies inform the maid about the employer's needs, put them down on paper and make the maid sign on it. Make known to them the other responsibilities involved, such as caring for old people and giving medication, and let market forces decide on the appropriate amount to pay the maid.

Please consider all angles first before passing a law. It is best to contact Forum writers like Ms Yvonne Chiam ('Solve employers' problems first'; last Saturday) and myself to understand more.

The Government must solve employers' problems first, and there must be flexibility in giving days off for maids.

Bernard Chua

Maids deserve good bosses

Straits Times, Forum, Jul 16, 2011

MY WIFE and I work and have had two Filipino maids during a 10-year period, until our two children reached primary school-going age.

For the past 16 years, we have not had a maid.

The first maid was from a village and we had to cope with her adjustment to modern living. We were blessed as both our maids were hard-working and very caring of our children.

My wife managed the maids. She had a written schedule for their chores and they had a free run of our kitchen. She did not stipulate when they should start work, but their workday ended by 9pm, regardless of whether I was home by then.

They had their own room. Our golden rules were: No visitors and no food must be brought into our home as we are Muslims.

They had at least one day off every month and sometimes more to celebrate religious occasions. We never asked them what they did on their days off.

As workers, we forget that we do not have employers who demand that we live where we work, and spy or pry into our personal lives.

We are not punched, elbowed and hot-spooned on our backs, or locked in until we complete our work.

Our employers hire us with the option of firing us. We, too, have the option of quitting.

Maids do not always have the choice, given the heavy financial cost they must bear for quitting.

Mohamed Ismail Ahamed Ghani

MORE DAYS OFF FOR MAIDS - Solve employers' problems first

Straits Times, Forum, Jul 16, 2011

CARING for my elderly mother, who is wheelchair-bound and suffers from dementia, is hard ('Consider law to give maids a day off every week: Halimah'; June 20). I must engage nursing aides when my maid is off duty. Fortunately, my maid, who has worked with me for almost eight years, is willing to accept just a day off each month, in addition to monetary compensation.

Granting her a day off every week, as suggested by Madam Halimah Yacob, the Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports, is difficult because of the lack of resources from nursing homes. The toughest challenge is when my maid goes on extended leave. Nursing aides are not guaranteed and, costing between $3,000 and $5,000 for a fortnight's service, expensive.

Maid agencies are legally barred from providing temporary substitute maids, and advertising for local maids is futile.

It will help if the ministries concerned, such as Manpower, Health, and Community Development, Youth and Sports, work jointly with the industry to provide a solution, which include:

# Providing weekend day-care services for the elderly and the disabled;

# Reviewing costing and means testing for community hospitals and nursing homes, making it affordable to the middle- and lower-income groups. Those who qualify for public hospital subsidies may not qualify for subsidies in community hospitals and nursing homes;

# Increasing the supply of nursing aides and respite-care services; and

# Letting maid agencies have a pool of maids to fill in for those on their days off or when they go on leave.

Unless the Government can solve employers' problems, there must be flexibility in considering days off for maids.

Yvonne Chiam (Ms)

Migrant workers can get help here

Letter from Edwin Pang Executive Director Migrant Workers’ Centre
TODAY, Jul 15, 2011

I REFER to the article "Disgruntled worker charged with trespass" (July 7).

Migrant workers who face employment-related problems such as salary arrears, a lack of proper accommodation or medical treatment and poor working conditions, may seek help at the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC).

We have been able to assist workers in resolving problems through various means, including working with the relevant authorities to resolve outstanding cases and providing emergency housing and food.

We, therefore, strongly urge migrant workers in distress not to resort to desperate measures. Such actions not only flout Singapore's laws but will ultimately aggravate the woes of the workers, rather than help to resolve the issues.

Migrant workers do not need to suffer in silence.

A better alternative is to approach the MWC for guidance and assistance.

To date, we have assisted more than 2,000 migrant workers since we were formed in 2009.

The MWC also aims to instil in migrant workers a greater awareness of their rights and responsibilities, their employers' obligations and possible avenues of help, so that they are better able to protect themselves.

We recently conducted roadshows for about 12,000 migrant workers at their dormitories to educate them on these subjects. To date we have reached out to almost 70,000 migrant workers and will continue to reach out to more through our events and activities.

The MWC, a joint initiative of the National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Federation, was established in April 2009 to champion fair employment practices and the well-being of migrant workers in Singapore.

It does this by providing emergency humanitarian assistance to workers in distress, promoting equitable employment practices as well as awareness of employment rights, and enhancing the integration and harmonious co-existence of migrant workers with their local counterparts and the community through the provision of social networks and structures.

The MWC's helpline is 6536-2692. The MWC is located at 62, Rangoon Road, and is open six days a week between 9am and 7pm from Tuesday to Friday, and 11am to 3pm during the weekend.