we ARE
in a lurch
the employers concerned are tryin their best
to keep their companies afloat
by the end of the months
many just shake heads
cpf 1st
utilities 2nd
workers wages 3rd
employers themselves
last
even as towgay/tawgayneo
they also have to survive
bills to pay
maids to feeds
dogs as well
as the chinese sayins goes
ho quah bor ho chia
good to see
no good to eat
tegnok boleh
makan ley tidak ada
(just for dr syed alwi)

Good work by Mr Leong Wee Keat.

The problem only surface now and MOM just turn a blind eye all along.

Brilliant regulation and policy-making. Our first-world government.

MP Denise Phua said more agencies should be engaged in solving foreign-worker woes. “The final, total solution needs to be stitched not just by MOM, but with the relevant foreign embassies and other stakeholders like employers’ federations and NTUC … from ensuring basics like food and lodging, to job placements where possible,” she said.

So nice of Ms Phua to suggest this brilliant solution, but now she needs to convince the civil servants and scholars that if they screwed up, they will not be “marked for life and will not affect their rice bowls“.

She sits on the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Manpower.

Its been a while and I wonder how did we all come to this stage of poor performance.

Could it be the love child of wrong policy procreation that bares the missing limbs of positive results.

Where do we go from here ? The parents of policy creation ……..

Lets start with minimum wage to begin with and end with CPF ?

Please trace your footsteps backwards, rewind your dialogue to reveal the future.

I am not surprised that foreign workers are left on the lurch and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

One way out is to get MOM and the EElite to get the employers to sell their assets to pay the foreign workers. That is when the employers say it is the economic downturn and wa bo lui or I have no money.

Having worked in Singapore for all kinds of low paying jobs and having seen all kinds of employers I came to one conclusion. To be dead honest and speaking from my heart I have never come across a good employer. If it happens then it is a dream come true and like a thunder bolt on a hot sunny day.

I have also worked with foreign workers when I worked as a landscape worker for a local contractor. To cut a long story short I really felt sorry for them and my heart bled.

I was a foreign worker too in NZ and Sweden. In NZ I even became a trade union delegate and I even called a strike of the slaughtermen assistants of Makarewa Freezing Workers. Though a foreigner and a Chinese looking fellow nothing happened to me. Summer came to an end and I went back to uni to read master’s in social science. God’s own country!

The MOM is on the side of the employers and I found this out when I reported the many cases of cheating by employers to MOM and demand that it acted against or allow me to take those culprits to the Labour Court.

One MOM officer told me candidly that MOM is on the side of employers because they have money and are the paymastes.

So, based on my experiences, inference and the MOM officer’s confession to me I am 1000 per cent convinced that the government is too-too good to employers.

My solution to the problem is for the government to send a message to employers that it will not hesitae to get employers to sell their assets to pay the foreign workers or Singapore workers. Then we will see whether “action speak louder than words

Hohapata tariana hoi hoi

MOM should aggressively step up its enforcement actions to deal with irresponsible employers, as what I had suggested in my letters to The Straits Times’ online forum (dated Dec 22, 2009) and My Paper (Dec 30).

A bit surprised govt so passive when it comes to helping workers get a fair deal from the employers. More so for the FWs.

It just shows the mentality of our country.

Many FWs will go home having a bad impression of us and in future many will not willingly come down unless it is a sure-win situation.

The agreement between agents also need to be tightened up as we are talking about big money here. Many became instant millionaires if the number of FWs total in the hundreds. For each FW they bring in, I am sure the returms must be at least four figure revenue making it a very profitable business.

I am also surprised that FWs can come in so easily without any guarantee work for them. This show that there is a big loop hole somewhere. MOM needs to plug the hole so that FWs will not get a raw deal.

As this year promises to be a slow down, MOM can take the opportunity to slow down the processing of FWs to our country.

As FWs are also human with needs and families, this situation needs instant action or else it may spiral into something big adversely.