Hear their stories:
Stephanie
INTRODUCTION
I work at HOME as a case manager and researcher. I have been volunteering at HOME since 2008 and I joined as a full-time staff member last year. As someone involved in case work at the Domestic Worker Help Desk, we are on the frontline. When a domestic worker runs away and comes to our office, we listen to her and find out why she’s left. If she’s emotionally distressed, we try to calm her down. We assess the situation and try to give her appropriate advice, so they can make an informed decision. We assist them in making claims to the relevant authorities, whether it is the police or the Ministry of Manpower. If necessary, we also try to help them seek legal aid and legal advice. When they stay at our shelter, we provide food and shelter, but we also try to take care of other aspects of their well-being. We have a volunteer medical team, volunteer counsellors, volunteer befrienders. So, we journey with the domestic worker from the time she arrives at the shelter until she leaves.
FDW CHALLENGES
At the Domestic Worker’s Help Desk excessive work hours is the top complaint. Verbal abuse, illegal deployment – meaning being asked to work in two houses or in family businesses are also common.There are also issues like restriction on communication, constant surveillance and of course we also see cases of physical and sexual abuse and harassment. There are multiple forms of abuse and exploitations that domestic workers face, and we need to take all of them seriously. Often, when there is a serious aggravated physical or sexual abuse of domestic workers,there will be a public outcry. But there are also a lot of other practices that tend to be normalised and widely accepted in Singapore. For example, restricting mobile phone use, not allowing days off, “safe-keeping” of domestic worker’s wages, and withholding their passports.
You do not need to be physically chained to your employer, to be compelled to stay in a very unfavourable work situation. We do not sufficiently acknowledge what coercion means, and we take a very depoliticised view of migrant worker’s lives in Singapore when we do not acknowledge the inequalities of bargaining power. We need to understand the context in which migrant workers work and why they often stay in such conditions and what are the coercive powers that employers and others may hold over them.
ADVOCACY EFFORTS
Domestic workers in Singapore continue to be excluded from the Employment Act and there are already very little protections for these workers. It is important that the few protective measures that are available are strictly enforced, that employers and employment agents will be sufficiently deterred from continuing such exploitative practices.
I would say that HOME has been on the forefront with the other migrant worker NGOs to raise the issues related to migrant worker rights and well-being and there does seem to be greater general awareness about particular issues surrounding migrant worker rights. There has been some positive policy changes within the last decade. For example, implementing of weekly rest day for domestic workers under the Employment of Foreign Worker Manpower Act and key employment terms in the Employment Act.
The issue though, is that these amendments can be quite easily undermined. So for example we still see a lot of domestic workers who still do not have weekly rest days because employers choose to financially compensate which is something that is allowed under the amendment. We still see a lot of migrant workers who do not have their key employment terms, contracts, payslips, etc. So we welcome these positive policy amendments but they need to be complemented by consistent enforcement, to make sure there are significant improvement on the grounds for migrant workers.
ISSUES WITH FRAMING
In terms of migrant worker issues in Singapore, from the coverage in the mainstream media over the last decade, I can see that there's an increasing emphasis on migrant worker problems. But I want to highlight that there are issues of emphasis, framing and follow-up action.
So in terms of emphasis, maybe some problems are emphasised a bit more – like abuse or salary problem. But in terms of framing, how do we see such problems? Do we continue to frame it as a situation that is exceptional? Only some errant employers are guilty of doing this? Or do we acknowledge that it is a structural problem – that these are persistent problems that have surfaced year after year after year by NGOs like HOME and others? I think that, yes we do raise certain issues, but we do not give sufficient weight to the structural context to how to deal with it.
On coverage of migrant workers, do we lapse into stereotypes, into tired tropes about domestic workers and migrant workers? These sort of sensationalist coverage where we kind of are monitoring and morally policing their behaviour instead of having a discussion about what their rights are, do we recognise the complexity of life in Singapore as a migrant worker, and how there’s also a lot of ambiguity and complexity in their experiences.
Finally, I would like to propose that, even though there may be greater awareness generally, there’s insufficient critical self-examination of our responsibilities and obligations at multiple levels. As a destination country within the region for migrant workers, do we consider what our regulatory framework is, and try to harmonise that to international labour standards and laws? At the company level, do we think about the supply chains? If you are the main contractor, do you think all the way down your supply chain – are all the workers who are employed, are they treated fairly?
As an employer of a domestic worker, or someone who lives in a house where a domestic worker lives, your home may be your private sanctuary, but do you recognise that it is a workplace? Once you hire a domestic worker, your house is not you’re your home, it is a workplace. Do you accord this person the same protection and respect that you expect when you go to work every day? As a society, collectively, what is the orientation of our moral compass? What do we demand of ourselves? Do we say that we are only going to focus on economic growth, or do we try to rise above the image of ourselves as only financially pragmatic and focused on being a competitive economy or do we also say that it is very important that we can be world class in other ways. Like for example, adhering to international conventions and ensuring that all workers regardless of their nationality and their status, and their gender, and their race, are fairly and equitably treated.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE
I think our policy framework needs to be strengthened a lot more. Like I mentioned, domestic workers are still excluded from the Employment Act, they are unprotected by the law. We need to really strengthen the framework and ensure that we harmonise them with internationally recognised human rights and labour standards. The government does need to step in in certain areas. I know there is a tendency to leave things to the market and let businesses decide on conditions but there are areas like ensuring that workers are paid a living wage which I think if left to market forces, the competitiveness of the economy means that those kinds of conditions may not be realised. Businesses and other stakeholders need to work together to make sure that we do not have such a cut throat business environment in which not just businesses are struggling, but also workers.
There are many efforts now to appreciate migrant workers and I think that’s wonderful. I do hope that beyond just appreciating the contributions that migrant workers make to our economy, we will also move towards fully respecting them as persons who are deserving of rights. And we should find a way to treat them with justice and respect that we also demand for ourselves and the people that we care about.
CASE WORKERS
Jevon
INTRODUCTION
I’ve been working with HOME for about 2 years now. I assist (non-domestic) migrant workers who are in distress. The workers I mainly see are from the construction, manufacturing, services and process industries. These are workers who earn as low as $300-500 a month. What I do is I hear them out, I listen to the problems they’re facing, I teach them how to gather evidence, inform them about their rights, and provide them any assistance that they require. It may be writing to the ministry, sending them to the police to make reports, teaching them how to make salary claims, etc.
I also work with workers to empower them to make their own decisions. I run through the options that they have with them, and I inform about their rights and work through the options that they have and problem solve with them to make a decision on how they want to progress with their claims. I work on strengthening the community that migrant workers have by empowering them – building their capacity, so that they are able to understand the law and their rights better. The role in strengthening the community – the concern in increasing worker’s capacity so that they can be empowered to stand up for their rights. We are also concerned about building the community so that migrant workers can support each other and stand up for their rights.
MIGNRAT WORKERS'CHALLENGES
For workers there is always the fear of being repatriated by their employers pre-maturely or being blacklisted. One of the biggest problems that workers face are high recruitment fees, because workers pay very high recruitment fees to come to Singapore to work. Last year we saw a worker that paid almost $20,000 to come to Singapore. However, workers’ employment here is tied to their employers’ sponsorship so they can be terminated anytime for no good reason. This make workers beholden towards employers and vulnerable to exploitation. Workers end up accepting salaries that are less than they’re promised back in their home countries they may be asked to work excessively long hours and they have to do so without complaints or risk the termination of their employment.
When workers suffer workplace injuries here, often times employers don’t want to report their injuries and workers are at loss at how to do so. Employers are reluctant to report these injuries because companies may be marked for having too many accidents on their worksite and insurance costs might increase. So there is certain reluctance for employers to be doing so. As a result, workers may be denied their work injury compensation claims. What makes things worse is some doctors collude with employers to issue inadequate number of MCs. We have seen 2-day MCs for fractured fingers, fracture arms, and this is just purely to keep the number of MCs below the statutory threshold for work injury reporting.
Because migrant workers feel intimidated and are afraid of being blacklisted, they are also afraid to come forward with their claims. Employers exploit this position that migrant workers have to overwork them. We’ve seen workers work up to 12-15-hour work days, sometime overnight. When projects are closer to their deadlines, we see workers end up working excessive hours, more than the stipulated 72 hours. Even when workers report that they have overworked, the ministry processes these claims as salary disputes and require companies to pay them. Not recognising that this also contributes to workers’ psychological and emotional health and that this affects their physical well-being. The current employer-sponsored work permit system does not allow workers to switch employers freely. So this limited job mobility is a disincentive for workers to come forward to file their claims. Because they are afraid that if they do so, they will be repatriated or blacklisted. So the current work permit system has to change.
ADVOCACY EFFORTS
In the last decade, HOME has lobbied for better workplace welfare, and has lobbied for better oversight over workplace injuries and better living conditions for migrant workers. Through these lobbying efforts from HOME and other NGOs, there is greater awareness on the salary issues that workers are facing and also the issuing of inadequate MCs to workers. This resulted in the introduction of key employment terms and itemised payslips that employers are expected to provide to workers.
However, we see a regular trend, where employers are still not providing these documents to the workers and enforcement is still weak in this area. HOME has also been submitting complaints against doctors to the Singapore Medical Council for issuing inadequate medical leaves. This resulted in a recent conviction of a doctor and prompted the SMC to update its ethical guidelines. This also motivated the SMC to update its ethics and ethical guidelines to include the issuing of medical leaves to patients themselves and not to parties that are simply making payments and guidelines of issuing medical leaves the commensurate the issuing of adequate medical leaves.
What HOME has done over the years is also to advocate and raise awareness, to show that these deceptive recruitment conditions that workers face result in them experiencing traffic conditions here in Singapore. However, the narrow definition that the state currently holds prevents many of these cases from being recognised as traffic cases.
Migrant workers are also not allowed to form their own trade unions or start their own trade unions. There are trade unions around that are relevant to the industries that migrant workers work in but these unions care very much only for the local population and migrant workers continue to be a minority in these unions. So, it’s difficult for them o advocate for better working conditions for themselves as they are not allowed to come as equal parties to the negotiating table to negotiate for these rights.
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE
Singapore can take a more proactive role in protecting workers who come to Singapore by looking into companies’ financial health before allowing workers to come to Singapore. Some of times, when workers have unpaid or underpaid salaries, it is due to the companies’ closure. But this is not fair for workers who are not able to find out more about these companies’ financial health before coming to Singapore. The state can also take a more proactive role in investigating companies that flout the employment law by performing audits on these companies and when they find that these companies have truly violated the employment laws they should recover these salaries for workers. There can also be a state mechanism that requires companies to employ migrant workers locally first, especially those that have lost their jobs due to employment disputes or to a closure of companies. Its difficult for migrant workers to find new employers here, so this mechanism can also assist workers to find placements with new employers here. This can assist through worker retention and retention of skills.
I think workers are no different from you and I. They come here to support their families, to support their children. And they take great risks to travel and cross borders just to earn a decent living. All they want is to be treated fairly and with dignity and to be treated decently. We will do well as a society if we attribute to them the rights that they deserve, and we do not discriminate against them simply because they have low wage or less power in our society. We want to look back 10-20 years from now, that say that we have done well in treating our poor in our society with dignity, in caring for those who are marginalised. We want to look back 10-20 years from now, and say that we have allowed workers to seek justice, when they have been wronged and that our country was not built on slave labour. What’s the point of having a swanky skyline that is glitzy when all of it was dependent on people who were unpaid, who lived and worked in slave like conditions. Just for us to reap its benefits. I think such an outcome no matter how beautiful the outcome, it will be tainted by that injustice that was perpetuated on a group of workers who were exploited.