Manpower Ministry roadshows in July will publicise a hotline and info on expected standards
By Amelia Tan, The Straits Times, 10 May 2012
A DRIVE will be mounted in July to define for foreign workers the kind of housing they should expect for themselves in Singapore.
Roadshows will be held, and they will be given printed publicity material in their native languages, urging them to blow the whistle on employers who short-change them in this department.
Through pamphlets, posters and roadshows featuring skits, these workers will be told, for example, that their accommodation should have clean toilets and bathrooms and should not be overcrowded.
They will also have a hotline number to call if they have a complaint to make.
This outreach is the next phase in a push by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to raise housing standards for foreign workers.
In recent years, efforts have been targeted at employers and dormitory operators. These groups have been updated on the changes to regulations on foreign-worker housing and given suggestions on how to improve living conditions for their workers.
Enforcement has also been in the picture: From 2009 to 2011, MOM sent warning letters, imposed fines, and prosecuted 4,500 employers for failing to meet the minimum requirements for foreign-worker housing.
Dormitory operators and employers are bound by law to house foreign workers in facilities which meet legal requirements in land use, structural integrity, fire safety, and hygiene and sanitation. They could be fined up to $5,000 or jailed up to six months or both for each worker housed in unacceptable conditions.
The engagement efforts and the penalties may have paid off: MOM says the overall standard of foreign-worker housing has gone up, and the number of employers prosecuted has come down.
In 2009, enforcement action was taken against 1,800 employers; last year, the figure was 1,000.
The number of foreign workers relocated by MOM to approved dormitories has also fallen, from 18,800 in 2009 to 8,000 last year. This comes from the sting of errant employers being made to pay for the cost of putting up their relocated workers in better-run dormitories.
Mr Alan Lum, who heads MOM's Housing Enforcement Branch, noted that his team already gets tip-offs on poor housing conditions from government agencies, the public and some foreign workers. Now the branch wants more feedback from workers themselves.
He said: 'Accommodation may not be a priority for many workers here. Many just want to work and earn money for their families, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't be given proper housing. We want to send them the message that they are entitled to a good living environment and that they should let us know when their living conditions are not meeting the standards.'
A Bangladeshi worker did just that in 2010. After he complained to MOM about his dormitory being dirty and overcrowded, his employer was fined $10,000.
Dorm operators say it is useful for foreign workers to learn about what constitutes acceptable housing.
Mr William Goh, property officer of Tiong Aik Construction, which runs three dormitories, said: 'Some workers are used to poor living conditions in their home countries so they are not sure what standards dorms should meet.'
Construction worker Ramalingam Radha Krishnan, aged 25 and from India, said: 'I used to live in dormitories that had cockroaches and rats, but I didn't know who I could complain to.'
Giving workers like him a hotline number to call is one thing. It is just as important for MOM to protect the identities of those who file complaints.
Dr Noorashikin Abdul Rahman, the vice-president of welfare group Transient Workers Count Too, said: 'Employers may fire and repatriate the worker if they find out who complained. MOM should run a shelter for these workers to protect them from their employers.'
At present, MOM does not run such a shelter.
Clean dorm = happier, more productive workers
By Amelia Tan, The Straits Times, 10 May 2012
AMID reports of foreign workers living in appalling conditions, one dormitory set up by an engineering company in Tagore Lane is a bright spot.
The 150 workers employed by Sing Moh Electrical Engineering have a Wi-Fi connection and a rooftop area for their meals; they are also provided with televisions, washing machines and dryers.
And get this: These workers stay free of charge. They need only pay for their meals.
It was not always like this.
Sing Moh bit the bullet and put $3.5million into buying the plot of land in Tagore Lane and building the dormitory and office after it received complaints from its workers that the dormitories they lived in were overcrowded and dirty.
There was also a cost imperative: The company's workers, mostly from India, were being housed in dormitories across the island, which made it a logistical nightmare transporting them to and from their work sites.
Sing Moh director Kenneth Teo says the expenditure was a wise investment, with the workers now 'happier and more productive'.
He adds: 'We operate the dorm, so we can set strict rules and get the workers to follow them. This ensures the dorm is clean and tidy. The senior workers are in charge of reminding the other workers that they must not eat in their rooms.'
Mr Teo says the company hopes to make the dorm 'a home away from home' for its workers.
Sing Moh organises celebrations at the dorm during Chinese New Year and Deepavali, during which the workers are treated to meals. Games are also organised.
Workers say they are thankful for the effort put into improving their living conditions.
Mr Pulikuttiya Pillai Srinivasan, 41, says: 'The dorm is clean and comfortable. I can rest well at night and work hard the next day.'
Mr Ravuthayan Vasan, 31, says: 'I used to work in Malaysia and the dorm there had cockroaches and the toilets were dirty. The dorm here is very nice. I am happy here.'
Of rats and rubbish
By Amelia Tan, The Straits Times, 10 May 2012
RUBBISH collection centres that do double duty as living quarters and overcrowded dormitories where foreign workers share the space with rats and cockroaches - these are some deplorable conditions under which some foreign workers are housed.
The rubbish bin centres which surfaced in checks by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in July 2010 had been home to construction workers from Eng Leng Contractors - for some, as long as nine months.
Lim Jiun Wei, 38, and Francis Wan Kar Hou, 32, two management-level employees of Eng Leng, had falsely declared on the Online Foreign Worker Address System that the workers were being housed in HDB flats.
They were fined $40,000 each.
In December 2010, MOM inspectors found dorms managed by operator ST9 at Woodlands Industrial Park to be overcrowded.
More than 1,100 workers lived in three factory-converted dorms, which had been approved to accommodate only half that number.
More than 600 were being housed on levels that were not approved for this purpose.
ST9 was fined $50,000.
In October 2010, MOM found 377 foreign workers from 12 companies living in cramped, poorly ventilated conditions in the Tagore Industrial Avenue dormitory operated by Sunhuan Construction.
That was not Sunhuan's only infraction: The site was not even zoned for use by commercial dormitories.
Sunhuan was given two fines of $10,000 each.
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