ONE hundred and eighty foreign workers living in Tagore Lane have been left jobless, unpaid and now hungry as well, as meal deliveries stopped abruptly yesterday.
thsi is called `passing the buck' at its best - regulator, employer, sub-contractor, workers. the buck will end up in the bangla embassy to clear the excreta. MOM can't escape responsiblity for their foreign manpower policies that allow this kind of things to happen - china workers protesting at employer trying to , sit- in at MOM, so many dubious manpower HR companies bringing in PRC for food industires, and other doubtful dubious professions. all the loopholes MOM doesn't know? padding `ghost' locals to get more foreign workers. these highly-paid best admin service can't escape blemish for their policies.
and you think those foreign gals are here to study English in private schools? how come so easy to get passes into Spore? watch the lines of rich sugar daddy big cars are waiting outside thier `schools' to ferry them to more pleasurable pursuits than the study of the English Language. Education hub?
What else can the MOM do but FINE the contractors peanuts?
Most of these poor souls will still have to balek kampong to live a worse live than before. How many would be ‘bitten’ by their loan sharks, would those responsible for their plight know???
I am glad to see that ST is reporting these cases, although it is sad to read of employers behaving in ways that really are unacceptable and callous. If it were their family members, would they simply leave them to starve and without any means to survive. It doesn't reflect well on Singapore as a whole, even if we all hope that these situations are one in a million. Truly civilized societies don't go about reveling in comfort only to dump their labourers in a lurch in the face of economic challenges ... that is not genuinely entrepreneurial behaviour. I lived in HK for many years and came to see a different side of what it means to be enterprising.
Of course both foreign workers and local workers are suffering at this time ... but all are human beings and must be treated with neighbourly consideration. Please don't misunderstand - I do sympathize with enterprise owners (I was once myself) - I do ... these are tough times all round. But leadership has it's benefits but also it's burdens ... so enterprise owners need to take the good with the tough/bad times too. I hope our government will come down hard on anyone treating another human being as if he/she were disposable, so that the principle will be emphasized and such abuses will be seriously discouraged.
Thank you again for exposing these cases. Please don't shy from doing so. It helps our society genuinely mature.
This is utterly unreasonable. Its one thing to exploit cheap foreign labour but to deprive them their due for the work they have done is evil. Singaporeans cannot view this without compassion and ignore just because they think "it doesn't concern us" because it does.
Today it's bangladeshi workers. Tomorrow it'll be the worse off Singaporeans being exploited and what a scary world that will come to.
Is there any control at all??? Hopefully now the relevant authorities can see what is happening!!!
These agents are making bundles of money from these poor foreign workers! Companies are exploiting cheap labour sometime at the expanse of our locals!
End of the day, the public suffers the consequences of all these social problems not to mention the plight of these poor workers.
The reputation of Singapore is being tarnished. Unfortunately if this problem is not being detected or resolved fast enough, it might lead to spread of diseases like TB or increase in Crime rates! What do you expect all these workers to do when they are `painted into a corner 'and `herded up' in a small enclose space without any money or food???
Jack Focus Maid Agency is having a maid who came here to work.
She is here ONLY FOR 3 MONTHS BUT HAD BEEN TRANSFERRED FROM ONE EMPLOYER
TO ANOTHER FOR 4 TIMES.
Obviously she is lousy . SHE CANNOT WORK.
Yet the Agent can take her into the country to send her round and round.
THIS IS TO MAKE MONEY FROM THE IGNORANT EMPLOYERS
WHOSE FAULT ?
IN THIS CASE BECAUSE THE CONTRACTOR WANTED CHEAP LABOURERS
SO THESE POOR FELLOWS WERE BROUGHT INTO THE COUNTRY.
WE CAN REMEMBER THIS IS NOT THE FIRST CASE.
IT HAPPENED SO MANY TIMES
WHAT IS OUR MOM OR GOVERNMENT DOING ABOUT IT ?
I THINK THEY ARE DOING NOTHING ABOUT IT OTHERWISE SUCH INCIDENTS WOULD
NOT BE REPEATED OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
THE CONTRACTORS GET THEIR CHEAP LABOURERS AND THE GOVERNMENT COLLECT
THEIR LEVY. THAT'S IT.
SAME WITH THE MAID PROBLEM. AGENCY CLAIM THAT THE MAID CAN WORK RECOMMEND
TO THE PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYERS . COLLECT THEIR FEES AND THE GOVERNMENT
WILL COLLECT THE MAID LEVY. THAT'S IT.
THE AGENCY IS HAPPY AND OUR GOVERNMENT IS ALSO HAPPY.
THE POOR EMPLOYERS SUFFER BECAUSE THE MAID CANNOT PERFORM.
WHEN IS OUR GOVERNMENT GOING TO ACT ?
I GUESS THEY WILL NOT SO LONG THEY ARE ABLE TO COLLECT THE LEVIES.
December 18, 2008 Thursday, 03:35 AM
