Un-Accounted For

The first part of the forum saw the launch of 'Debt, Delays, Deductions: Wage Issues Faced by Foreign Domestic Workers in Singapore'. This report contained the findings and recommendations of a TWC2 research team on wage issues for foreign domestic workers. Volunteers had conducted interviews on the streets and held discussions in a focus group a few months earlier.

It was found that the workers normally have a heavy burden of debt at the start of their employment in Singapore, chiefly due to costs arising from the process of recruitment and placement. Nearly all their earnings for the first six months or more of their employment are swallowed up in repaying the loan they took out to cover these expenses.

The workers surveyed often reported suffering further losses through arbitrary salary deductions. This raises the problem of the kind of deductions that might be considered legitimate and those that are unfair, on which there is no clarity or standard. Foreign domestic workers are usually in no position to contest their employers' withholding of money that they were due to be paid.

Other issues considered included the role of employment agencies in influencing the debt burden of foreign workers and the limited possibilities of securing legal redress when contract terms have been infringed.

The report concludes with a list of concrete recommendations about how the problems highlighted could be overcome or much reduced.  Download Summary Report (27.13 KB)

TWC2 president, Braema Mathi, and Executive Committee member Stephanie Chok handled the presentation of the report and recommendations. The study was conceptualized by Stephanie and Braema; the survey was conducted by a host of trained volunteers and the hard work of analyzing the results and putting the report together was done mainly by Delia Paul and Ricky Wang.

In the second part of the forum, issues concerning the role of World Bank and IMF policies in relation to migrant labour were raised for discussion. As global financial institutions, they are in a position to influence the social and economic position of vast sectors of the world's population: there are reasons to think that their intervention has sometimes tended to worsen the conditions that cause people to need to uproot themselves from their homes and seek employment elsewhere. This issue was explored in a detailed press statement: regrettably, it received no media coverage of which we are aware.

This was in contrast to the subjects raised in the earlier part of the forum. The Straits Times, Berita Harian, Lianhe Zhaobao and Today all gave enough space to their coverage to allow the major topics to be considered, and their reporting was fair and accurate.

Adapted from a report in the TWC2 members' newsletter.
The full text of 'Debt, Delays, Deductions: Wage Issues Faced by Foreign Domestic Workers in Singapore' is available in hard copy for $10, from the TWC2 office.