Jevon Ng is the Social Work Executive in the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME), an NGO dedicated to providing assistance to migrant workers in Singapore who are abused and exploited. HOME was founded in 2004 at a time when awareness of the working and living conditions of these workers was beginning to rise.
Harvard Political Review: What is the current state of living conditions for migrant workers in Singapore?
Jevon Ng: There are problems with temporary workers’ quarters that are on construction sites. Some of the construction workers live in half-built buildings. The quarters that workers live in can be very cramped—with little ventilation—and sometimes overcrowded. We have also seen cases where twelve to fifteen people have been crammed into a single room with triple-decker beds. Sometimes their quarters can be waterlogged during the rainy seasons. This causes mosquitoes to breed and workers to develop skin conditions. We have seen cases where the portable toilets have not been maintained for a while and were heavily clogged, leading to hygiene problems. Furthermore, such accommodation is also dangerous, as there is no way to predict when an accident might take place, which may injure workers when they are resting. We see that even though the Ministry tries to regulate this and visit sites, the problems still persist.
The living arrangement of domestic workers is also problematic. Because employers are sometimes afraid of domestic workers running away, they are often confined in the house. As domestic workers are dependent on their employers for food, we have seen cases of severe malnutrition, and because their working hours can be very long, many domestic workers find they are not able to get sufficient sleep. There are no clear requirements for domestic workers under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act. Some are forced to sleep in the kitchen, with a family member of an opposite gender, or with the household’s pets.
HPR: Are there any arenas of migrant workers’ rights that Singapore’s government is particularly notorious for not protecting?
JN: The right to job mobility and freedom is something that is not protected. Employees are allowed to transfer employers only when employers have failed to fulfill statutory obligations or contractual obligations, such as the non-payment of salaries.
The right of workers to be paid contractual wages is also not protected. During salary disputes, workers are regularly asked to settle for less than what they are owed when they seek recourse through the Ministry of Manpower’s claims process. The Ministry of Manpower adopts a conciliatory approach instead of a punitive one when employers do not pay their workers. This puts workers on the losing end. There is currently no mechanism that ensures workers can recover their full salaries from their employers even when the employer’s company is not insolvent.
Migrant workers’ right to adequate medical treatment is also not protected. When injuries occur, we find that workers are sometimes not provided with optimal or complete treatment—especially when they are not work-related or if the treatment is too costly. This is because the entire cost of providing for migrant workers’ medical expenses is placed on the employers and the problem is exacerbated by the low cap on the mandatory medical insurance employers are required to buy when hiring migrant workers. Workers are not able to negotiate for better salaries or living conditions because they are not able to form their own unions.
Domestic workers are also deprived of their right to job mobility. The employer-sponsored work permit system gives employers the unilateral right to grant workers a transfer. This puts workers in a precarious situation when the employment relationship has already soured. The lack of a live out option for domestic workers also cause many to endure slave-like living conditions where they are deprived of their right to nutrition, privacy, and physical mobility. It also causes them to be vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse, which can go undetected for long periods of time.
HPR: What barriers hold the government back from improving the lives of these migrant workers?
JN: The Singaporean government’s focus on portraying itself as employer and business-centric holds the government back from being too punitive towards employers. But this is done at the cost of neglecting workers’ rights, such as their right to accurate remuneration and medical attention. The government is interested in maintaining this environment where companies can hire low-cost labor. But this creates an environment that is unfair to migrant workers.
HPR: Can you expand on the role NGOs such as HOME play in guaranteeing migrant workers a certain standard of living and rights?
JN: NGOs cannot guarantee migrant workers a standard of living and rights. The laws have to change to ensure migrant workers are guaranteed their rights. NGOs have come in to fill in gaps where the law and institutions are lacking and provide migrants with a platform to voice their concerns in the public square.
NGOs serve to lend weight to the worker in the worker’s interactions with employers and the Ministry of Manpower. We also facilitate migrant workers’ access to legal and medical services so that they can obtain just recourse and needed medical attention.
We conduct empirical research and run campaigns to raise awareness regarding issues affecting migrant workers. We communicate the situation on the ground to the authorities and maintain dialogue with them to resolve certain issues or specific cases.
For example, we are currently advocating for domestic workers to be included in the Employment Act and the Workplace Injury Compensation Act, and for workers’ wages to be protected during insolvency of their companies. HOME also provides shelter to abused domestic workers and victims of trafficking.
HPR: What type of work does your position as a caseworker entail?
JN: I assist migrant workers with their employment complaints. I work on empowering workers to seek recourse for their claims at the Ministry of Manpower and prepare them to face their employers during the claims process. There is always the fear that if they were to report their claims to the authorities, they would be threatened with repatriation.
I look for lawyers who are willing assist in doing pro bono work for migrant workers and doctors who are willing to offer medical assistance to workers at reduced cost when employers do not keep to their obligations to pay for medical treatment. I also enlist and train volunteers to assist workers in a greater capacity.
HPR: How much freedom does the government afford NGOs seeking to better the lives of these workers?
JN: We have freedom to operate—to do research with and assist workers. At the same time, the Ministry only allows union representatives to accompany workers when they are seeking mediation in the Employment Claims Tribunal—NGO representatives cannot assist or accompany workers in the Tribunal. We find this problematic because these workers usually are disempowered—they do not understand the laws, and they might not even understand English very well. Many workers, in fact, are not union members, and they are also minorities in unions that mainly consist of locals. The workers might feel too intimidated to stand up for their rights in a courtroom full of locals.
HPR: Overall, would you say migrant workers and their families benefit from labor migration to Singapore?
JN: Migration is not the solution to development. For some migrant workers, it does materially improve the lives of their families. At the same time, it is also a risk that they take because the employment situation can easily sour in a foreign country like ours. Migrant workers can end up in further debt due to the lack of adequate employment protection. Overall, it disincentivize the domestic governments [of] sending countries from developing the domestic infrastructure to improve the local employment situation.
Image Credit: Flickr/Bernard Spragg. NZ
This interview has been edited and condensed.