Yawning Bread. 6 June 2009

Justice for workers, not quick fixes

    

  

 

The company at the centre of the storm described in my articles Muddy Singapore swallows China workers parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, was Xuyi Construction. Those December and January articles told of Chinese workers who had not been paid for months and who were detained by the employers' agents, police and the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority in preparation for deportation.

The Ministry of Manpower did very little to the help the workers even though the employer appeared to be breaking the law.

On 29 May 2009, BBC broadcast a new report. Amazingly, the company at the centre of the story was none other than Xuyi again. Yet another batch of workers are complaining of unpaid wages and ill-treatment.

 

The workers whom I had highlighted in my December story were not the first batch from Xuyi to have had problems with their employer. By their reckoning, they were the third batch.

Nor was Xuyi the only negligent employer accused of holding back on salaries and making arbitrary deductions, clear offences under Singapore's Employment Act. In the same period, numerous other groups of workers, some Chinese, some Indian and Bangladeshi, descended on the Ministry of Manpower with similar complaints. 

Finally, in the middle of January, the Ministry of Manpower said that errant employers would be prosecuted.

But was it just an empty statement to defuse the mounting protests?

Well, not quite. A few news reports subsequently emerged about prosecutions, the most recent of which was this one:

5 June 2009
Straits Times

Boss charged over workers' unpaid wages

Case is result of MOM probes which have identified over 60 firms with pay arrears

An employer was taken to court yesterday for failing to pay the salaries of 100 foreign workers, which amounted to $77,000.

Julian Yip Si Wei, 26, is said to have failed to pay salaries of the workers hired by his two companies - M Power Engineering and Iron Works, and Zippon Marine and Engineering - earlier this year.

He allegedly failed to cancel the permits of the workers and repatriate them, even though he did not have work for them.

Instead, he kept them in Singapore without paying their salaries, which came to about $77,000.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in a statement yesterday that the cases against the two companies were the result of probes by a ministry task force set up earlier this year to detect errant employers, including those with salary arrears.

[truncated]

You would have noticed that this Straits Times story adopted an angle showing the government as pro-active, taking the form of "We set up a task force to unearth a problem and we are solving it". It quoted a  government press release in its last paragraph.

The truth of course is that the government is being just minimally reactive. It took mass turnouts in front of the ministry building to compel some attention to workers' grievances. Occasionally, a story slips through to the mainstream press, for example, the one below. However, you have to read past the first half which, unsurprisingly, lauds the government's care and concern, before you see, in the second half, that the workers had to take action themselves before our civil servants would give a damn.

In fact, reading between the lines of the sidebar, it may be that the ministry provoked the crisis themselves by revoking work permits without ensuring that workers were first paid.

 

7 May 2009
Straits Times

Stranded workers settle claims

About 420 to return to China, while 66 opt to stay and find other jobs 
By Goh Yi Han

MORE than 400 Chinese foreign workers left stranded by their errant employers have accepted a settlement offered by their employers' representatives.

Over the past two days, former employees of Hokh Contract Services and Raffles Contractors with salary claims and fee payment issues have been turning up at the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM's) offices in Kim Seng Road, where they are informed of the terms of the settlement.

MOM said that 83 per cent, or about 420 workers, agreed to accept the settlement and be repatriated to China, while 66 others chose to stay in Singapore to find another job.

The Straits Times understands that most individuals have accepted a lump sum of more than $1,000, as well as an air ticket back home to China within the next week.

Workers who opt to stay to find new jobs will be interviewed by companies liaising with MOM, and be paid a smaller sum in compensation. Those not eventually hired will still be paid the smaller sum.

The workers, whose work permits were abruptly cancelled last month, have been trying to claim unpaid salaries and fees owed to them by their employers. These are understood to amount to at least $5,700 each.

Last Monday, a large group of them gathered outside the MOM building in Havelock Road seeking help and some answers from the ministry on the issue, and dispersed only after the police were called in. Their case is, in fact, just one of several that have surfaced since January this year.

As the economic downturn persists, many foreign workers have been seeking help from MOM and the authorities with regard to issues such as non-payment of salaries and fees, or problems with accommodation.

An MOM task force, set up this year to detect employer malpractice and cash-flow problems, has so far found at least 48 errant companies.

In order to better protect foreign workers' welfare, the National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Federation jointly launched a Migrant Workers Centre last month to help workers with employment-related issues, as well as promote good employment practices.

As far as the workers involved in this latest incident are concerned, the settlement closes a chapter on weeks of angst over their jobs and salary.

However, many still harboured mixed feelings about the solution offered to them.

'I'm not totally satisfied with the arrangement, but I don't have a choice. I don't have money to continue staying in Singapore much longer to find another job anyway,' said 43-year-old Mr Zhu Shulin from Zhejiang province in China, who came to Singapore about five months ago.

He was hoping to get back the one month's pay his former employer Raffles Contractors owed him, as well as his agent fees. The payout, though, would not fully cover these, he said.

Another worker from China, who wished to be known only as Mr Jiang, said he was disappointed that more could not be done.

'I paid almost $10,000 to come here, but I can get only a small portion of it back now. If I tried to stay to find work, I might end up getting even less than that,' he said. 'I think I'll just go home.'

MOM said that it was currently investigating Hokh Contract Services and Raffles Contractors for failing to pay their workers.

If found guilty of not paying their employees' salaries, the people behind the companies could be fined up to $5,000 and jailed for up to six months for each foreign worker. Both firms have also been barred from hiring new foreign workers.

Straits Times' Sidebar

Help sought

# Late March: MOM begins investigating Hokh Contract Services, Raffles Contractors and Neo-Built for errant practices.

# April 13: MOM revokes work permits of all three companies' foreign workers.

# April 23: Over 800 Chinese workers gather at agent's office to claim fees and unpaid salaries.

# April 27: About 200 workers gather outside MOM seeking answers and help.

# May 5-6: More than 400 workers with claims issues are offered settlements at the MOM office.

The ministry urged foreign workers to report salary arrears promptly, to allow for early intervention and quicker resolution of their problems.

  

 

 

But what about Xuyi? Why, despite repeated complaints by batch after batch of Xuyi workers, is Xuyi not prosecuted? Might it have something to do with the fact that they are building the Marina Sands casino -- a prestige project?

* * * * *

 
I know Singaporeans have conflicted feelings about foreign workers here. Some feel there are just too many and that they are taking away jobs from Singaporeans.

This debate is quite a separate one from that of treating people fairly. The question of how many foreign workers we should have is a question of policy. We can increase or decrease the number of work permits we issue.

The question before us is a question of justice. When we have agreed to let someone come here to work, shouldn't we extend to them all their rights to humane working conditions and fair and timely payment of wages?

When the Ministry of Manpower acquires a culture of always looking away when workers complain against their employers, what makes us think they will not look away in other cases where Singaporean workers are involved too?

© Yawning Bread 

 

 

 

 

Justice or quick fix?

I find this boast of "settlement" hollow. The lump sum solution is unsatisfactory, because it appears to be a compromise. Instead of paying workers what is owed to them based on a careful computation of hours worked, including overtime, it seems to be a rough and ready figure that in effect, it represents the partial success of the bullying position of employers. It is a solution that is not based on justice, but based on strength and influence.

A government whose duty is to uphold justice – and our ministers having pledged allegiance to our constitution is duty bound to do that – cannot be facilitating such unprincipled solutions.

It is a dereliction of duty. In any democracy it is a possible cause for impeachment.

It should insist on properly calculated salaries, per contract terms and the law, paid promptly.

 

Footnotes

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Addenda

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