2008 Jan-Feb
This newsletter looks back on International Migrants’ Day 2007 and forward to TWC2’s annual general meeting on Sunday, 23rd March. That gathering will be an opportunity to review what the society has done over the past year and to consider plans for the next 12 months. Please come along if you can!
We think that TWC2 has done valuable work in seeking to change public thinking about foreign workers, promote policy changes and offer practical advice and help to those who need it via our helpline. To carry this work forward, we need more resources – people with commitment and ideas, and also money to allow us to pay our way.
A new group of volunteers has come forward to join our third helpline training course, which began on 13th February. We’re pleased to have had a good response to appeals to help in our research and to take part in dealing with projects such as IMD. This year, we’ll need volunteers to help in the Day Off campaign that we aim to pursue with various partners, and in planning for this year’s IMD event, as well as many smaller-scale events in the meantime.
We also need to push ahead with fundraising. The urgency of the situation was brought home to TWC2’s Executive Committee when it met at the beginning of the year, and our Treasurer, Russell Heng, showed that, with what we currently have in the bank and at our present rate of spending, we’d run out of money in September. The committee is putting a lot of effort into looking for financial support, and would appreciate any help that can be offered. Meanwhile, you’ll see regular items in the newsletter on fundraising this year.
We understand that there have been some communication difficulties, with some members not receiving ‘On the Move’ each week and some volunteers recently not getting their messages through to us. We hope that we’ve sorted that problem out, but you can help us by ringing the office on 6247-7001 if you go more than a couple of weeks without receiving anything from us or if a message you’ve sent to us receives no response.
International Migrants’ Day 2007 is well and truly behind us. For those involved in the preparations, it was an exhausting process, but it was heartening that we had some very good responses.
Day Off Campaign
Most of those who came forward to help were students. HOME and TWC2 called a meeting of the volunteers at the TWC2 office the night before the leafleting, at which the content of what was going to be distributed and the practical arrangements were discussed. On Saturday 15th December, we went out, mostly in pairs, to half a dozen spots on Orchard Road and distributed nearly 2000 copies of a ‘Domestic Workers Need Their Days Off Too’ card and a leaflet discussing concerns expressed by many employers about giving their domestic workers a day off.
It rained heavily for a while, but we carried on, as planned, from 2-5pm. Unfortunately, as this was shortly before Christmas, there were plenty of other people distributing leaflets too, which probably explains the reluctance of some shoppers to take them, but they gradually went. Some individuals stopped to say that they supported what we were doing and that it was very necessary.
Migration Film Festival
Four short films were screened at Pitch Black on the afternoon of 15th December and again, early in the evening. About 60 people came to see the films altogether. This was a Migrant Voices/HOME/TWC2 event.
Futsal Tournament
Our volunteers turned up bright and early, and so did the teams. We had allowed in our timetable for the possibility of some late arrivals, but in fact, we were able to begin just ten minutes after the time advertised in the programme. Warner Banaag, a DJ on ‘Hello Asia!’, kindly compered the tournament. John Gee, TWC2’s president, welcomed the audience and players and thanked all the sponsoring and supporting bodies. Bridget Liew, president of HOME, briefly added her welcome and wished the participants well.
There were eight men’s teams of seven players each (including two reserves), and six women’s teams – 98 players in all. Each team played three matches in the qualifying rounds, and then the highest scoring teams went through to semi-finals and finals. One ‘friendly’ match was arranged between a team who were very keen to play but had applied too late and one of the teams eliminated in the qualifying round.
Some players were new to the sport, but picked it up very quickly. Everyone seemed to enjoy it very much, and it was noticeable that most of the players from teams eliminated in the qualifying rounds stayed on until the end of the tournament.
There were three brief intermissions, during which women from the Filipino Overseas Workers Singapore performed. In the first two, they danced, and in the third, one sang a song. All were well received.
The tournament concluded with the presentation of prizes to the winning men’s and women’s teams and a final ‘thank-you’ all round.
The team turn-out and the enthusiasm of the players was pleasing. It was particularly gratifying that there so many women eager to join in and that they threw themselves into the tournament wholeheartedly: when we started planning, some of our partners had expressed doubts that any women would be interested in participating. We had some written feedback from players, but not a lot. Most of our information from them came from informal conversation, but it indicated that they’d all enjoyed themselves. The same was true for most of the people who came to watch.
We did not attract anything like the size of audience we’d hoped for: some 150, going by the count at the door. There are several theories about why it was low. Because funding only came in after a lot of appeals, everything was delayed, including venue booking, and so advance publicity went out late. We did not obtain the guest of honour we had hoped to secure and it was too late to invite another one. These are two factors. Perhaps the main problem though, is that Singaporeans tend not to go to sporting events as spectators; as a keen sportsman told us afterwards, ‘Just look at S-League matches on television – the stands are often half empty and a lot of people watch games at home.’ This is something we have to learn from and factor into future sporting events.
We had pre-tournament coverage in ‘Straits Times’ (14/12/’07) and on 938 Live, through a ‘phone in session on ‘Opinion’ with John Gee from TWC2 and Jolovan Wham from HOME; on 16th , ‘Lianhe Zaobao’ carried coverage and so did Channel News Asia, which broadcast some images of the opening matches and the first dance performance.
This was a MigrantVoices/HOME event. ‘Blinded, Binded and Trapped in Love’ was performed from 5 pm onwards on Sunday 15th, so some people raced over from the futsal contest to Little India to help or watch. It attracted quite a crowd, and was watched with a lot of interest. Part of the event was captured on film by BBC World TV and shown as part of a report marking IMD on the Asia Business Report programme. TWC2’s president, John Gee, did a live interview on the same programme.
Day Off Campaign
In December, TWC2 and HOME worked together to relaunch Day Off campaign work with leafleting on
The Bond and the Day Off
Don’t I lose my money if my worker becomes pregnant?
Employers of domestic workers are required to provide a $5000 bond as security for them. Some say that they are worried that if they give their worker a day off, she might run away, work illegally or be made pregnant and then they will lose their money.
The first thing to bear in mind is that foreign domestic workers want to earn money to send home, and they know very well that if they lose their jobs because of pregnancy, they will not be able to do that. Most also have religious or social values that work against that occurring.
If a domestic worker does become pregnant, Singapore's main concern is that she does not give birth here. It is a domestic worker giving birth in Singapore or overstaying when her contract has expired that would cost an employer the bond money. The alternatives for the worker herself are bad: to terminate the pregnancy or to return home early, without a job. Either way, employers do not forfeit the security bond. They face inconvenience, and taking on a replacement worker involves extra expenses, but that is still much less expensive than losing the bond.
I’ve heard of people losing their bonds; isn’t it a serious problem?
It can be exaggerated. The number of employers who lose their bonds in a year is well under one in a thousand:
'Fewer losing bonds for maids' - Arti Mulchand, Straits Times, 10th April 2006
'Last year, only 0.04 per cent of the employers of the estimated 160,000 domestic maids here forfeited their $5,000 deposits. That works out to 64 employers, as opposed to 96 in 2003 and 125 in 2001.'
You’re at rather greater risk every year of being injured in a car accident than of losing your security bond, but have you given up travel by car? Is it fair to deny over 80,000 women the chance to leave their workplace for a day off because of such a tiny risk?
Still, $5000 is a lot of money and I don’t want to risk it.
You don’t have to. When you are handling the arrangements for a new worker, you can ask about insurance policy choices. Employers commonly choose a policy that means the insurer guarantees to pay the bond if it is forfeited, and so the employer doesn’t have to tie up $5000 while having a domestic worker. However, if the bond is forfeited, this basic policy means that the insurer will pay it and then ask the employer for repayment. If you want to avoid that risk, you need to look for a policy that will cost you a bit more but will spare you the worry of maybe having to repay $5000. A number of insurers offer such a policy. Here is one described on the website of NTUC Income:
5. What is Waiver of Counter Indemnity?
The waiver option limits your $5,000 bond liability to $250 if the breach of the bond is not due to your negligence or fault. It is an optional feature in the Foreign Maid Insurance Plan. Every foreign maid employer in Singapore has to place $5000 as a deposit with the authority. If the maid runs away or gets pregnant, for example, the employer may lose the entire sum or the bond will be called up. However, if you add the waiver option, you'll be able to limit your liability to only $250.
6. Can I still opt for the Waiver of Counter Indemnity after the policy commences?
Yes, you can add in the waiver within the first 30 days from the effective date of the policy.
http://incnet.income.com.sg/uiGuide/guideDetailsPublic.aspx?gde=3069
So, in brief, there is no sound reason why the existence of the security bond should make an employer deny a day off and the right to go out to a domestic worker: the risk of losing the bond is small and there are other ways an employer can protect him/herself without keeping another person confined.
News from Overseas
Korea: Three top officials of the Migrants’ Trade Union – President Rajiman, Vice-President Raju and General-Secretary Masum – were detained during a crackdown on the union on November 27th and deported to their countries of origin (Nepal and Bangladesh) on December 13th. Protests against the action took place outside South Korean embassies in the Philippines, Nepal, Japan and at the mission in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong: 17 Indonesian migrant workers groups have formed Aliansi Tolak SE 2258 (Against Letter of Order 2258 Alliance) to campaign against new regulations issued by the Indonesian consulate. The regulations prohibit Indonesian migrant workers from switching from one employment agency to another unless they have completed a two-year contract or are given express permission by both the consulate and their agency. The alliance says that the regulations have the effect of legitimising ‘extortion by exploitative recruiters’ who automatically deduct seven months’ salary from workers to repay their ‘agency fee’. The regulations prevent workers from going to good practice agencies that abide by Hong Kong law and only charge 10 per cent of one month’s salary.