Poor Indian FTs - Not paid again

Familiar case of Indian workers not paid

Singapore: Indian Migrant Workers Protest(Singapore) Sat, Jul 01, 2006 Indian Migrant Workers Protest

16 July 2004, more then 150 Indian migrant workers protested peacefully to claim 4 to 6 months salaries owned by their employer. This is the second protest by workers from Wan Soon Construction to claim their salaries amounting to some $4000 to $6000. 28 June 2004 200 Indian Workers protest at Indian Embassy On 28 June 2004, the Indian migrant workers gathered to demand that the Indian Embassy assist them to claim the salary own to them.

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04 December 2008

THEY had run away, alleging their employers had not paid them and locked them in a 'cage' when there was no work.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has now resolved their claims. It found that these foreign workers with San's Marine Engineering Service, Han's Marine and K7 Engineering had not been not paid in full and has made sure that they received their full salaries.

But its investigations also revealed that not all of the workers' claims were true.

It found their complaints of no work and no pay over a long period to be unfounded.

In a statement issued yesterday, the ministry said it had resolved the salary claims involving 48 Bangladeshi workers from the three companies.

According to the statement, the companies had work contracts with shipyards but there were intermittent periods during which some workers were not deployed to work.

Instead, they were either given training to prepare them for skills tests or sent for re-training because their work standards did not meet those of the shipyards.

They were not paid their full salaries during these periods when they did not work, and there were also unauthorised salary deductions made by their employers. But the workers have since been paid, including for the training periods and for the deductions, after the MOM intervened.
The New Paper had reported on the workers' plight on 4 Oct. The men ran away in September after complaining that they had not been given work or their wages.

They also said they had had enough of being locked inside a fenced-up area, which they dubbed 'the cage', next to their employers' Tuas office during the day.

One of them, Mr Md Zakir Hossain Md Yousuf Ali, 24, had told The New Paper that they were made to sit in there day after day.

He said through a translator: 'We stayed in the cage the whole day doing nothing. We were not allowed to lie down or sleep.

'If we did, the bosses would scold us or pour water on us. They treated us like animals.'
Mr Md Zakir Hossain, who was employed by Han's Marine, claimed they were sent to the 'cage' as their bosses did not want them to be seen doing nothing at the dormitory during the day.
He said the same thing happened to subsequent batches of workers who arrived in Singapore.
But the HR manager of San's Marine denied any wrongdoing or ill-treatment of its workers, saying the fenced-up area was meant for training workers.

'Not a cage'

An MOM spokesman said yesterday that its investigations 'showed that it was not a cage, but an enclosed area in the company premises'. However, she did not say whether the workers were put in there as they had claimed.

The workers were listed as marine trades workers in their work permits. Once in a while, some would be deployed to do cleaning or general work for other companies, Mr Md Zakir Hossain claimed.

'Even when they sent us to do some work, we didn't get any pay. The company would deduct money for food, lodging and even laundry,' he claimed.

He paid an agent more than $8,000 to get a work permit to work here.

On this point, the MOM noted that many of these workers paid their Bangladesh agents money as security deposits for their job placements here. It has forwarded the names of these agents to the Bangladesh Embassy for further investigation and action.

The New Paper understands that some of the workers have found jobs with other companies.
When contacted yesterday, Mr Joy Kumar, 28, said he was paid $615 after the MOM intervened.

Although he felt it wasn't enough for his six months at San's Marine, he was happy that the MOM had helped him and some of the others find jobs.

He started working at another company yesterday, earning $16 a day.

'I am very happy that I can work and earn money,' he said.

Employers must ensure that they have work for the foreign workers they employ and make prompt salary payments.

First-time offenders can be fined up to $1,000 per charge. For repeat offenders, the fine is up to $2,000 per charge, or a jail term not exceeding one year or both.

They can also be barred from hiring new foreign workers if they are found guilty.