Monthly Archives: July 2014

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Starved into Submission

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Editor’s note: After the story was published, the Ministry of Manpower wrote to us that the cases in this article were being investigated. They also informed us that they would investigate complaints from FDWs about inadequate food.

You’re probably sitting down to read this article. At your desk or on the sofa. Somewhere comfortable. For domestic worker Amina, sitting down is now painful. She is so thin that it hurts her pelvis. She weighs a mere 29kgs, 20kg less than when she started work in Singapore. After Amina finally found the courage to run away from her employer, she was hospitalized for 3 days due to severe malnutrition. Amina is now recovering and has started gaining weight.

Amina’s case may sound extreme, but in the last year HOME has seen more cases of domestic workers suffering health problems caused by poor nutrition. In another case seen by HOME, domestic worker Shanti lost 7 kgs in 6 weeks because she was given only one small bowl of rice and one small bowl of vegetable curry per week. She prepared large meals of meat and vegetables for her employers, but was not allowed to touch their left-overs or even food they had thrown away. She was served her food on the floor. As she did not get a day off and received no salary as she was still paying off her agency fee, Shanti had no access to other food. She worked long days on an empty stomach.

I took this photograph of my employer’s dinner one night.

This is my food… it had to last me a whole week.

Government guidelines state that employers must provide ‘adequate food’ for their live-in domestic workers. But they do not define what amount, or type of food is adequate. The extent to which employers are taken to task for not providing adequate food is also not known. HOME has spoken to several domestic workers who were never given meat or vegetables, and had to live for long periods on just bread, rice or instant noodles. Many said they regularly went to bed hungry.

Failure to provide adequate food often coincides with abuse and denial of other basic living requirements. In Shanti’s case this included physical abuse by her employer. Amina was given limited access to washing facilities, was not allowed to brush her teeth and was allowed only two showers per week. To save money she was woken in the night to use the condominium showers rather than a bathroom in her employer’s apartment. Her employer, and sometimes even her employer’s husband, watched her shower, in order to make sure she did not use hot water.

Foreign domestic workers are legally required to live with their employers, which makes it hard to regulate their living circumstances. In cases where the employee works seven days a week, and has no opportunity to complement her diet elsewhere, she is left to the mercy of her employer.  Clearer guidelines and regulations on what comprises ‘adequate food’ for domestic workers would help to ensure that cases such as Amina’s and Shanti’s do not occur in future.

Names in this story have been changed to protect individuals’ privacy

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She slaved away for nothing

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Maria Luisa, a domestic worker from the Philippines, stayed sixteen months at our HOME shelter waiting for MOM to help her recover two years’ worth of salary (she says it was about S$9,000) owed to her by her employer. As her employer has declared bankruptcy, she has been informed that she will be sent home to the Philippines – with nothing.

A family friend from Maria Luisa’s hometown in the Philippines was married to a Singaporean, and ran a restaurant in Katong. She offered to hire Maria Luisa and bring her – and her son – over to Singapore. Maria Luisa trusted her friend, and arrived in Singapore in early 2009. For almost four years, she worked in the couple’s restaurant – delivering food, preparing sauces, and serving tables – for fifteen-hour shifts at time, seven days a week, for $400 a month.

As her employers were friends of her family, Maria Luisa placed her trust in them and did not know that she should not be working in the restaurant. Her son remained in the Philippines; the promise to bring him over unfulfilled. Maria Luisa has not seen her son since she arrived in Singapore more than five years ago.

Maria Luisa’s employers treated her well at first, buying her jewellery for her birthday and new clothes for Chinese New Year. But they stopped paying her salary sometime in 2011. She was told that there was no money to pay her. But Maria Luisa saw the restaurant still running, and other bills being paid. She repeatedly asked for money to send to her school-going son, but was always rebuffed – even on the happy occasion of her son’s graduation from elementary school.

She couldn’t sleep, and often shed tears worrying that she had nothing to send back to her sister who was caring for her son and their parents. But she continued to work, hoping and trusting that her employers would be touched by her dedication.

“They kept telling me that they would pay me, so I just waited and waited. Sometimes I was too scared to ask them.”

In March 2013, two years after her salary payments stopped, Maria Luisa finally filed a complaint with MOM. She was referred to the HOME shelter, and stayed there on a special pass during the on-going investigations.

After sixteen long months, the long-awaited call from MOM came. Maria Luisa’s employer had declared bankruptcy. The MOM officer said it would be too difficult to demand the owed salary from them. MOM was closing the case, and sending her home within 10 days. Maria Luisa broke down.

“How can I go home without any money, after waiting for three long years? I cannot accept it.”

Maria Luisa’s employer has pleaded guilty to several charges of failing to pay her and for illegal deployment, and has been jailed for six weeks as a result. But this is cold comfort for Maria Luisa, who now returns to the Philippines with nothing to show for three years of lost time. While she is happy to finally see her son, it is a bittersweet reunion because of her inability to contribute to her family’s finances.

“I’m not angry with them. But I can’t help but cry every night because I have nothing to bring back to my family.”

Maria Luisa’s story was featured on the front page of The New Paper on Wednesday 23 July 2014.

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HOME’s response to COI’s report on Little India Riot

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Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (HOME) welcomes the recommendations made by the COI in relation to the rights and welfare of migrant workers. We are glad that the Committee acknowledges the important role that low wage migrant workers play in contributing to Singapore’s economy and community. However, for their contributions to be properly appreciated and acknowledged, they should be given adequate protection so that they are not abused and exploited.  Singapore needs to go beyond the recommendations laid out by the Committee by introducing systemic changes in order to fully realise the rights of low wage migrant workers. In this regard, our comments on specific aspects of the report are detailed below:

Foreign workers are happy

The COI’s finding that every foreign worker they spoke to ‘testified emphatically that they were happy’ with their jobs and living quarters does not take into consideration the fact that the workers may have given socially desirable answers to the Committee for fear of negative repercussions. This is especially so for interviews with workers who were arrested and deported for their alleged involvement in the riot. It would have been more effective if worker’s rights groups and NGOs conducted these interviews.

High employment agency fees

We agree with the COI that greater bilateral cooperation is necessary between Singapore and sending countries to protect the rights of workers and regulate recruitment fees. Singapore should only approve the work permits of workers who have gone through legal recruitment channels in countries of origin. Even though hefty recruitment fees are paid in countries of origin, large amounts are often remitted to employers and recruiters based in Singapore as kickbacks. More oversight and enforcement in this area is needed in Singapore as the problem does not only reside in the country of origin.

Annual increment of salary for workers

We welcome this recommendation but it will not be effective without legislation or a change in mindset among employers. We agree that being paid adequately and fairly is important but legal protections should be enacted to prevent wage discrimination by nationality. Moreover, current policies such as high foreign worker levies are a disincentive for employers to increase their wages. Levies can go up to SGD$1000 for each foreign worker hired. Many employers are already recovering the cost of levies by collecting kickbacks from workers.

The National Wages Council should also state explicitly in their annual report on wage increases that their recommendations also include foreign workers in order to send a strong signal to all employers to take the wage increments of their low wage migrant employees seriously.

Education on employment processes

While education about rights is important, what is vital is that policies and laws which make it difficult to claim those rights should be changed. For example, the unilateral right of an employer to cancel work permits needs to be curbed and the worker’s right to switch employers freely has to be guaranteed. Without these changes, workers will remain reluctant to file cases of abuse.

Sensitivity in dealing with foreign workers

We agree that more training on sensitivity of law enforcement officers need to be done. Over the years, we have heard many complaints from workers that some government officers are rude and brusque to them. We also urge for these recommendations to be extended to employers, as many of cases of ill treatment and verbal abuse are often caused by errant employers.

Improvements to accommodation

The COI reports that housing available to foreign workers in Singapore ranks well in the world; however, we believe this assessment is only true in relation to dormitories which have been built specifically to accommodate foreign workers. According to media reports[1], there are approximately 150,000 bed spaces in such dormitories out of over 700,000 low wage migrant workers in Singapore, excluding domestic workers. Large numbers of workers continue to live in cargo containers, factory converted dormitories, shop houses, private apartments, HDB flats and temporary work sites facilities, including incomplete buildings under construction. These places are often cramped, unhygienic and full of pests. Their living conditions still fall short of international housing standards.

Role of employers and community support groups

We agree that more resources need to be poured into establishing welfare groups and agree that employer groups should consider setting up and funding support communities for migrant workers. Working abroad in new surroundings can be very stressful for many migrant workers and adequate social support is necessary. In addition, there is an important need for independent representation of workers by unions in order for their interests to be effectively promoted, as only 11% of all foreign workers are unionised.

 

Jolovan Wham

Executive Director

 

[1] See for example: