2007 Mar - Apr
Editorial
Following our 2007 AGM, TWC2 has quite a few projects to get on with. There's ongoing work, such as keeping the helpline serviced, and there will be new activities, including a research project on male workers' salary issues.
Reporting on the progress of these projects, and passing on their news and their appeals for support, will be a major feature of the members' newsletter in the coming year. 'On the Move' will continue to come out between times, relaying the more urgent appeals and news: if you're on e-mail and are not receiving that currently, please let us know!
In the January-February issue, we commented on the Philippines government's announcement of a new minimum wage for women travelling overseas to be domestic workers. The target is US$400, or S$600 for Filipino workers in Singapore.
Protests have come from employers who say that they can't afford the amount, and from agencies who say that they can't place Filipina women as domestic workers if they insist on being paid S$600: around $350 or so is the present norm for a new worker. They say that employers will insist on taking workers from countries whose workers accept less, notably Indonesia.
The people who are left in the most difficult situation are Filipina domestic workers who are already in Singapore. Some long established workers are paid over S$600 a month, so they do not face a problem, but what are the rest supposed to do? If their embassy and their home government argues for a S$600 salary, but employers say bluntly that they will not pay it, what can they do? Of course, they'd all like to be paid higher salaries, but they don't want to risk losing what they already have.
Maybe some employers who have had the good service of a Filipina worker for a while will think about all the things she does for their families and ask themselves whether this amount is so unreasonable? There are still bound to be many who won't or feel that they can't, but it is hard to argue that the advocates of a rise do not have a just case. But that applies to most other foreign domestic workers too.
Following our 2007 AGM, TWC2 has quite a few projects to get on with. There's ongoing work, such as keeping the helpline serviced, and there will be new activities, including a research project on male workers' salary issues.
Reporting on the progress of these projects, and passing on their news and their appeals for support, will be a major feature of the members' newsletter in the coming year. 'On the Move' will continue to come out between times, relaying the more urgent appeals and news: if you're on e-mail and are not receiving that currently, please let us know!
In the January-February issue, we commented on the Philippines government's announcement of a new minimum wage for women travelling overseas to be domestic workers. The target is US$400, or S$600 for Filipino workers in Singapore.
Protests have come from employers who say that they can't afford the amount, and from agencies who say that they can't place Filipina women as domestic workers if they insist on being paid S$600: around $350 or so is the present norm for a new worker. They say that employers will insist on taking workers from countries whose workers accept less, notably Indonesia.
The people who are left in the most difficult situation are Filipina domestic workers who are already in Singapore. Some long established workers are paid over S$600 a month, so they do not face a problem, but what are the rest supposed to do? If their embassy and their home government argues for a S$600 salary, but employers say bluntly that they will not pay it, what can they do? Of course, they'd all like to be paid higher salaries, but they don't want to risk losing what they already have.
Maybe some employers who have had the good service of a Filipina worker for a while will think about all the things she does for their families and ask themselves whether this amount is so unreasonable? There are still bound to be many who won't or feel that they can't, but it is hard to argue that the advocates of a rise do not have a just case. But that applies to most other foreign domestic workers too.
Presidential Message
We have a new Executive Committee as a result of the Annual General Meeting. There has been a re-shuffling of roles and three new members have joined the team.
Braema stepped down as president, having played a central and leading role in TWC2 from the very beginning. We have come a long way since a small group of people got together in 2002, determined to do something effective to improve the foreign domestic worker situation in Singapore. Braema put a lot of time, effort and imagination into TWC2 activities and she intends to go on doing so, while concentrating on several of our key projects for the rest of 2007.
I worked with her in the old TWC2 and since 2004, as vice president of Transient Workers Count Too and I think the co-operation was fruitful: we've complemented each other's roles and I'm sure that will continue.
Russell and Imran have switched posts; Noor and Eng Eng also continue on the new Exco. Stephanie stepped down after a year during which she often contributed creatively to our discussions and most notably, played a key role in all stages of the preparation of the 'Debt, Delays, Deductions' report. Her contributions were valued and she assures us that she will continue to support our work.
Three more members joined the committee. Margaret Thomas was one of our pioneers in 2002-3, in The Working Committee 2 days; Caroline Lim has recently worked on producing the members' newsletter; and Remy is one of our Helpline volunteers.
This should be a strong team for the society; with a nine-member executive, and the range of abilities and experience we can now call on, we should be well placed to advance TWC2's work.
Thanks to Alex and Yeoh Lay for agreeing to be honorary auditors for the coming year, and to Lucy and Delia, who took care of this last year.
Md Hirun Appeal
On Monday 19th March, some members read the sad story of Md Hirun in 'The New Paper'. Attracted by the promise of a well paid job, the young Bangladeshi had borrowed $9,000 from loan sharks to pay his costs in coming to Singapore, only to find himself deployed to work that paid $500 a month - half the expected amount. Through a series of misfortunes, he ended up falling and being injured while trying to escape a police raid when he was working illegally in Singapore. He faced the prospect of going home permanently disabled and with $6,000 in debts.
HOME issued an appeal to help Md Hirun and eventually collected enough money to pay off his debt and give him a start back in Bangladesh.
TWC2 supported the HOME appeal, and we were able to contribute $1,250 towards the appeal at our AGM on 25th March. Special thanks are due to the 'Business Times' staff who contributed $490 towards that.
What's In a Name?
TWC2 has sometimes been asked about how our name could be translated into other languages than English. The first challenge was Chinese: an attempt to translate it literally produced something clumsy sounding, so instead we came up with kegongyuanzhuxiahui, meaning Foreign Workers Resource Association.
An Indonesian possibility is: Persatuan Bertindak untuk Pekerja Migran (Action Group for Migrant Workers). Suggestions for Tamil names are Velinattu Uliyar Mayimpattu Sangam: Foreign/ Transient Workers Development Association and Velinattu Uliyar Udavi Maiyam: Foreign / Transient Workers Help Centre. For Tagalog, we have: Di Palagiang Mang Gagawa Ay Kabilang Din: Relief for Transient Workers.
Do you think that you have better ideas? Can you help by supplying names in Bengali, Burmese and Thai too?
We're gathering up ideas and would like to put them all on our website.
New Philippines Pay Policy
24 February 2007.
New Policy Reform Package for Philippine Overseas Household Service Workers
In keeping with Philippine Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announcement placing the minimum monthly salary of Filipino overseas household service workers (HSWs) at US400, the Philippine Embassy in Singapore has likewise announced that it shall only be processing new contracts containing this minimum salary.
According to Philippine Labor Attaché Annabella M. Oliveros, the new policy has been introduced as a means to dignify the status of Filipino domestic workers, professionalize their ranks, and protect and promote the welfare of HSWs. As such, Filipino HSWs in Singapore are advised to seek a monthly salary equivalent in Singapore dollars of S$600.
The move, which is supported by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines - Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care for Migrant and Itinerant People (CBCP-ECNI) and the Association for Professionalism in Overseas Employment Inc. (ASPROE), will bring Singapore based HSWs at par with their counterparts in countries such as Hongkong, Taiwan, Israel, Japan and other European countries where they have been drawing more than the required monthly US400 minimum.
The DOLE has also placed the minimum deployable age for HSWs at 23 years. New hires leaving for overseas jobs are also required to undergo an OWWA language and culture orientation course, at no cost.
These and other new policy reforms introduced by DOLE are seen to benefit the many Filipino domestic workers who seek employment overseas to be able to support their families including the education of their children back home.
We have a new Executive Committee as a result of the Annual General Meeting. There has been a re-shuffling of roles and three new members have joined the team.
Braema stepped down as president, having played a central and leading role in TWC2 from the very beginning. We have come a long way since a small group of people got together in 2002, determined to do something effective to improve the foreign domestic worker situation in Singapore. Braema put a lot of time, effort and imagination into TWC2 activities and she intends to go on doing so, while concentrating on several of our key projects for the rest of 2007.
I worked with her in the old TWC2 and since 2004, as vice president of Transient Workers Count Too and I think the co-operation was fruitful: we've complemented each other's roles and I'm sure that will continue.
Russell and Imran have switched posts; Noor and Eng Eng also continue on the new Exco. Stephanie stepped down after a year during which she often contributed creatively to our discussions and most notably, played a key role in all stages of the preparation of the 'Debt, Delays, Deductions' report. Her contributions were valued and she assures us that she will continue to support our work.
Three more members joined the committee. Margaret Thomas was one of our pioneers in 2002-3, in The Working Committee 2 days; Caroline Lim has recently worked on producing the members' newsletter; and Remy is one of our Helpline volunteers.
This should be a strong team for the society; with a nine-member executive, and the range of abilities and experience we can now call on, we should be well placed to advance TWC2's work.
Thanks to Alex and Yeoh Lay for agreeing to be honorary auditors for the coming year, and to Lucy and Delia, who took care of this last year.
Md Hirun Appeal
On Monday 19th March, some members read the sad story of Md Hirun in 'The New Paper'. Attracted by the promise of a well paid job, the young Bangladeshi had borrowed $9,000 from loan sharks to pay his costs in coming to Singapore, only to find himself deployed to work that paid $500 a month - half the expected amount. Through a series of misfortunes, he ended up falling and being injured while trying to escape a police raid when he was working illegally in Singapore. He faced the prospect of going home permanently disabled and with $6,000 in debts.
HOME issued an appeal to help Md Hirun and eventually collected enough money to pay off his debt and give him a start back in Bangladesh.
TWC2 supported the HOME appeal, and we were able to contribute $1,250 towards the appeal at our AGM on 25th March. Special thanks are due to the 'Business Times' staff who contributed $490 towards that.
What's In a Name?
TWC2 has sometimes been asked about how our name could be translated into other languages than English. The first challenge was Chinese: an attempt to translate it literally produced something clumsy sounding, so instead we came up with kegongyuanzhuxiahui, meaning Foreign Workers Resource Association.
An Indonesian possibility is: Persatuan Bertindak untuk Pekerja Migran (Action Group for Migrant Workers). Suggestions for Tamil names are Velinattu Uliyar Mayimpattu Sangam: Foreign/ Transient Workers Development Association and Velinattu Uliyar Udavi Maiyam: Foreign / Transient Workers Help Centre. For Tagalog, we have: Di Palagiang Mang Gagawa Ay Kabilang Din: Relief for Transient Workers.
Do you think that you have better ideas? Can you help by supplying names in Bengali, Burmese and Thai too?
We're gathering up ideas and would like to put them all on our website.
New Philippines Pay Policy
This is the text of the press release issued by the Philippines Embassy about the decision to raise the minimum pay of workers overseas and how it intends to seek the implementation of the measure in Singapore.
Philippine Embassy, Singapore24 February 2007.
New Policy Reform Package for Philippine Overseas Household Service Workers
In keeping with Philippine Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announcement placing the minimum monthly salary of Filipino overseas household service workers (HSWs) at US400, the Philippine Embassy in Singapore has likewise announced that it shall only be processing new contracts containing this minimum salary.
According to Philippine Labor Attaché Annabella M. Oliveros, the new policy has been introduced as a means to dignify the status of Filipino domestic workers, professionalize their ranks, and protect and promote the welfare of HSWs. As such, Filipino HSWs in Singapore are advised to seek a monthly salary equivalent in Singapore dollars of S$600.
The move, which is supported by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines - Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care for Migrant and Itinerant People (CBCP-ECNI) and the Association for Professionalism in Overseas Employment Inc. (ASPROE), will bring Singapore based HSWs at par with their counterparts in countries such as Hongkong, Taiwan, Israel, Japan and other European countries where they have been drawing more than the required monthly US400 minimum.
The DOLE has also placed the minimum deployable age for HSWs at 23 years. New hires leaving for overseas jobs are also required to undergo an OWWA language and culture orientation course, at no cost.
These and other new policy reforms introduced by DOLE are seen to benefit the many Filipino domestic workers who seek employment overseas to be able to support their families including the education of their children back home.