Society: Deceived...

...into paying exorbitant commissions. Forced into working unwanted jobs in hazardous conditions. Denied the right to resign without paying up. Punished for speaking out. These are some of the allegations made by 10 Bangladeshi migrant workers against STAFF ME, an employment agency; and Built-TL Construction Private Limited (BTCPL), L&L Builders Pte Ltd (LLB), two construction companies. All three are fully or partially owned by the same person, anonymised as “Ms Tan” in the case dossier and video published by Workers Make Possible (WMP), an NGO advocating for workers’ rights here. We’ve derived the below account from that.

The workers paid fees of S$1,000–S$3,100 to a mix of Bangladeshi and Singaporean agents. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) stipulates employment agencies cannot charge more than two months’ salary, which in these instances was around S$500. The men assumed they’d work as painters, cleaners and electrical workers—a few were told as much. Instead, they were coerced into rebar casting, an extremely difficult job, dangerous without training. Some were also forced to enter septic tanks without safety equipment or enough ventilation. They resigned, but were told their contracts have a three-month notice period. Singapore’s Employment Act specifies no ceiling on notices. “...Can an employer include a clause that requires a worker to serve notice with them till they die, or, even better, till their children or grandchildren stop reproducing?” sardonically asked WMP. Some agreed to serve the notice even as they sought advice from MOM. Others requested the notice be waived, allowing them to look for new jobs, but Tan invoked another clause to demand three months’ wages (S$1,500) from each. 

The group steeled itself to raise the matter with the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM), a mediation body with reps from MOM, the National Trades Union Congress and the Singapore National Employers Association. TADM’s proposed agreement allegedly allowed Tan to “retain her claim of 3 months [sic] salary,” but forced workers to drop remuneration claims for work done. In return, Tan would pay for a ticket back to Bangladesh and a “verbal” promise to not pursue her claims if and when the workers returned to Singapore. Most refused to accept it. Two, exhausted by the ordeal, did—following TADM reassurances. But when one of them returned late last year, Tan pounced. “When are you going to return the money…You do not reply, we will go and find your [new] company.” The workers also allege that after they complained to MOM, Tan denied some food and accommodation. One was forced to sleep on the pavement.

Many cases are now with the Employment Claims Tribunal. WMP claims that numerous others at BTCPL and LLB are desperately unhappy, but won’t approach MOM, “because they fear being worse off.” Both firms are subcontractors of Soilbuild, which was in turn performing work for ComfortDelGro. As worrying as the labour allegations is the notion that whistleblowers will be targeted. For society’s most vulnerable, how can they find justice and restitution? What’s the responsibility of MOM and the client in ensuring an ethical supply chain? Soilbuild told WakeUpSG that it’s commenced investigations. Comfort and the MOM have not responded to our requests for comment.

Note: WMP is raising funds to help tide the workers over while their cases are resolved. Many are currently unemployed. Donations can be made via PayNow to Kumarr, a WMP member and host of the aforementioned video, at 94506169. Kumarr and others, including the workers themselves, will decide how the money is disbursed.

Business: Singapore Inc embroiled in racist and exploitative practices Down Under

Australia’s Mount Isa region in Queensland has a rich cultural and trading history. Extensive mineral deposits facilitated perhaps the world’s earliest ground-edge stone tools, some 20,000 years ago. Indigenous peoples may have traded axes and blades for tobacco, and also created vibrant rock art, whose figures have “distinctive feathered headdresses, no face, and often a third leg which is variously interpreted as either a penis or a lizard’s tail.” The Kalkadoon people, the traditional owners of the land on which Mount Isa sits, fought a successful guerilla war against advancing European prospectors in the late 1800s, before inevitably succumbing, with 900 killed during a six-year campaign of retribution. Resource exploitation accompanied racial: the lead, silver, copper and zinc of Mount Isa Mines make it one of the most productive in world history. 

And now Singapore Inc is implicated in its lingering racism. Singtel subsidiary Optus this week agreed a settlement (pending court approval), including a A$100 million (S$83.5 million) fine, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), for “unconscionable conduct” while hawking its telecommunications goods and services to consumers in the Mount Isa region and the Northern Territory. In one incident, a First Nations consumer, who speaks English as a second language and lives in a remote area with no Optus coverage, was pressured by Optus staff into entering a store, and then accepting a “free” phone and other “free” products. They were then unwittingly contracted to two phones, three plans, two Device Protect services and one accessories bundle, with a total minimum cost of A$3,808 (S$3,180) over 24 months—and, for good measure, a second contract the following day. Optus staff falsified their credit information. In another case, a consumer with an intellectual disability, whose main source of income was the disability support pension, was similarly manipulated by Optus staff into three separate contracts that would cost over A$8,000 (S$6,680) over 36 months. 

Even after Optus’s senior management discovered these breaches through a 2019 internal investigation at the Mount Isa store, it did not provide restitution to victims, but rather “sold outstanding debts associated with some of those contracts to third party debt collection and factoring agencies”, who in turn went after them. Optus is wholly owned by Singtel which is majority owned by Temasek which is wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance. Its profits can flow into our reserves which can flow into our pockets. Exploitative forms of shareholder capitalism, pioneered by European colonialists, thrive when moral responsibility is relinquished through an unethical supply chain. Singtel’s bosses have a lot more explaining to do—and it’s on all of us to push them. (The firm did not return a request for comment.) 

Earth: Beyond the shore, into the deep

To see a baby turtle waddling across a beach, each sandy slap a determined lunge towards the sea, is to revel in creation, the joy of life, the spirit that knows not what lies ahead, or whether birthplace will be seen again. For millions of years they, in all their forms and shapes, glided through waters and trundled across lands, their armour and their shy, touch-me-not bodies keeping predators at bay. The arrival of homo sapiens altered their fates. We kept them, rode them, raced them, mythologised them and turned them into artefacts. We’ve polluted their waters and our fishing nets have trapped them. Our shore lights have disoriented them, preventing them from seeing the light of the moon, from finding the blue they know.