Biting deep into the pockets of foreign workers
Many say price hikes have added between $20 and $50 to their monthly food bills.
The Straits Times, 5th April 2008
BY BRAEMA MATHI
Senior Writer
BY BRAEMA MATHI
Senior Writer
GROCERY shopping here has become an excruciating ordeal of comparing, haggling and imploring for Mr M. Samy, 39, a work permit holder from Chennai, India.
Since December, his twice-weekly marketing sessions at Serangoon Road’s Tekka Market have taken twice as long. The air-conditioner technician first spends half an hour scouting for the best prices among the various stalls, does his mental sums, then homes in on the cheapest fish stall to bargain for the best deal.
There, he spends a good 10 minutes asking for the prices of different-size prawns, then repeats the process for crabs and fish. He then asks sheepishly for a 50-cent discount.
Finally, he walks away with his catch – 1kg of prawns for $7.50 and 1kg of ikan tongkol for $10. He casts a final longing look at the crab, his favourite, but walks away. The price – $12 to the kilogram – is too high.
Three months ago, he would have paid $5 for the prawns, $7 for the fish and $8 for the crab. In spite of his savvy shopping and self-denial, he and his flatmate now fork out $150 each for groceries every month, up from $100 last year.
Rising food prices are not easy to stomach given that his salary over the last six years of working here has barely inched up – from $1,100 in 2002 to $1,200 today. Meanwhile, the rental on his two-room flat has risen from $1,200 to $1,600. He and his flatmate pay $240 each, up by $70 over the years. Their company picks up the rest of the bill.
He counts himself one of the “more fortunate” among the almost 700,000 foreign work permit holders here who mostly work as cleaners, construction workers or technicians. He draws a monthly salary, while the majority are daily-rated workers, typically earning $14 to $20 a day.
A check with 15 work permit holders – seven Indians, four Bangladeshis, three Myanmar nationals and a Thai worker – in Little India this week showed that price hikes have added between $20 and $50 to their monthly grocery bills.
Many say they have cut down on phone calls home, liquor, cigarettes – even chocolate – to make ends meet. Others toil over the weekend or work overtime to make up the difference as living costs here rise, while their pay and family commitments back home remain the same.
For many like construction worker S.Suresh, 27, it is now harder to save enough to support his farmer parents and four school-going siblings back home in Chennai.
He no longer watches Tamil and Hindi movies at the Jade cinema in Beach Road. Neither does he buy “expensive vegetables” such as carrots and French beans, which have gone up by a dollar each to $6 and $3.50 per kilogram respectively.
He needs to make up for the extra $50 that he now spends monthly on food. This way, he is still able to send home $200 out of his $600 monthly pay packet every month.
Others who are less disciplined, or who arrived here more recently like construction worker Chinniah Rasoo, 40, have steadily fallen back on remittances.
The Tamil Nadu native arrived here four months ago and is still paying off a $5,000 debt in $200 monthly instalments, to the agent who found him a job here.
Squeezed by rising transport and other costs, he manages to send only $200 to his wife and three children, instead of the targeted $300.
“When I do my sums, it is really sad. We work hard but everything is going up. Soon, we might eat just chicken as it is cheaper than fish for a big group. What to do? We are caught in this situation,” he says in Tamil.
Compassionate stallholders at Tekka Market like fishmongers Lee Keng Seng, 45, and P.Jaraposs, 45, say they try to charge the foreign workers less and absorb the increases themselves.
Mr Nur Nabi, who sells frozen chicken, even lends money to foreign workers whom he “feels sorry for”. Most of them, the 40-year-old notes, make good on their promise and return to repay him the 50 cents or $1 that they owe.
“What to do? My prices have gone up. I already have fewer customers among the foreign workers. Now, it sometimes takes three days to sell what we used to sell in two days,” he says.
Civil society groups like the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home) are concerned over how foreign workers are coping.
Noting that some get catered food through their employers at the worksites or in their dormitories, Home executive director Jolovan Wham says: “They deduct between $100 and $150 monthly from their salaries. With the rise in food prices, I hope they will not increase these deductions or cut back on the food.”
Another group, the Archdiocesan Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, has been distributing food to newly arrived foreign workers at three to four construction sites thrice a week.
Since last month, advocacy groups Transient Workers Count Too and One Singapore have been providing free breakfast to foreign work permit holders, especially those whose claims of non-payment, workplace injuries or exploitative agents are under investigation by the authorities.
Their volunteers have been helping to serve up uthappam (a thick pancake of fermented rice and lentils) and hot drinks to about 60 foreign workers every morning at a Cuff Road restaurant. They are currently raising more money to provide more meals for the workers.
Mr Michael Sitow, co-founder of One Singapore, which seeks to eliminate poverty, says: ”Many of the foreign workers came in good faith. They have large debts and they need food. If they do not have enough to eat for various reasons, we must do something for them.”
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Since December, his twice-weekly marketing sessions at Serangoon Road’s Tekka Market have taken twice as long. The air-conditioner technician first spends half an hour scouting for the best prices among the various stalls, does his mental sums, then homes in on the cheapest fish stall to bargain for the best deal.
There, he spends a good 10 minutes asking for the prices of different-size prawns, then repeats the process for crabs and fish. He then asks sheepishly for a 50-cent discount.
Finally, he walks away with his catch – 1kg of prawns for $7.50 and 1kg of ikan tongkol for $10. He casts a final longing look at the crab, his favourite, but walks away. The price – $12 to the kilogram – is too high.
Three months ago, he would have paid $5 for the prawns, $7 for the fish and $8 for the crab. In spite of his savvy shopping and self-denial, he and his flatmate now fork out $150 each for groceries every month, up from $100 last year.
Rising food prices are not easy to stomach given that his salary over the last six years of working here has barely inched up – from $1,100 in 2002 to $1,200 today. Meanwhile, the rental on his two-room flat has risen from $1,200 to $1,600. He and his flatmate pay $240 each, up by $70 over the years. Their company picks up the rest of the bill.
He counts himself one of the “more fortunate” among the almost 700,000 foreign work permit holders here who mostly work as cleaners, construction workers or technicians. He draws a monthly salary, while the majority are daily-rated workers, typically earning $14 to $20 a day.
A check with 15 work permit holders – seven Indians, four Bangladeshis, three Myanmar nationals and a Thai worker – in Little India this week showed that price hikes have added between $20 and $50 to their monthly grocery bills.
Many say they have cut down on phone calls home, liquor, cigarettes – even chocolate – to make ends meet. Others toil over the weekend or work overtime to make up the difference as living costs here rise, while their pay and family commitments back home remain the same.
For many like construction worker S.Suresh, 27, it is now harder to save enough to support his farmer parents and four school-going siblings back home in Chennai.
He no longer watches Tamil and Hindi movies at the Jade cinema in Beach Road. Neither does he buy “expensive vegetables” such as carrots and French beans, which have gone up by a dollar each to $6 and $3.50 per kilogram respectively.
He needs to make up for the extra $50 that he now spends monthly on food. This way, he is still able to send home $200 out of his $600 monthly pay packet every month.
Others who are less disciplined, or who arrived here more recently like construction worker Chinniah Rasoo, 40, have steadily fallen back on remittances.
The Tamil Nadu native arrived here four months ago and is still paying off a $5,000 debt in $200 monthly instalments, to the agent who found him a job here.
Squeezed by rising transport and other costs, he manages to send only $200 to his wife and three children, instead of the targeted $300.
“When I do my sums, it is really sad. We work hard but everything is going up. Soon, we might eat just chicken as it is cheaper than fish for a big group. What to do? We are caught in this situation,” he says in Tamil.
Compassionate stallholders at Tekka Market like fishmongers Lee Keng Seng, 45, and P.Jaraposs, 45, say they try to charge the foreign workers less and absorb the increases themselves.
Mr Nur Nabi, who sells frozen chicken, even lends money to foreign workers whom he “feels sorry for”. Most of them, the 40-year-old notes, make good on their promise and return to repay him the 50 cents or $1 that they owe.
“What to do? My prices have gone up. I already have fewer customers among the foreign workers. Now, it sometimes takes three days to sell what we used to sell in two days,” he says.
Civil society groups like the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home) are concerned over how foreign workers are coping.
Noting that some get catered food through their employers at the worksites or in their dormitories, Home executive director Jolovan Wham says: “They deduct between $100 and $150 monthly from their salaries. With the rise in food prices, I hope they will not increase these deductions or cut back on the food.”
Another group, the Archdiocesan Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, has been distributing food to newly arrived foreign workers at three to four construction sites thrice a week.
Since last month, advocacy groups Transient Workers Count Too and One Singapore have been providing free breakfast to foreign work permit holders, especially those whose claims of non-payment, workplace injuries or exploitative agents are under investigation by the authorities.
Their volunteers have been helping to serve up uthappam (a thick pancake of fermented rice and lentils) and hot drinks to about 60 foreign workers every morning at a Cuff Road restaurant. They are currently raising more money to provide more meals for the workers.
Mr Michael Sitow, co-founder of One Singapore, which seeks to eliminate poverty, says: ”Many of the foreign workers came in good faith. They have large debts and they need food. If they do not have enough to eat for various reasons, we must do something for them.”
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it