Fewer Complaints Does Not Equal Improved Conditions

This letter was published in TODAY on 30 August 2011.

IN THE article “MOM refutes report on Chinese migrant workers” (Aug 26), the Ministry of Manpower says that HOME’s report, The Exploitation of Migrant Chinese Construction Workers in Singapore, does not reflect the full picture of their employment conditions.

While the ministry cites statistics showing a decrease in complaints, the issues raised in HOME’s report do not claim to be representative of all migrant Chinese construction workers.

However, through our interviews and experience assisting hundreds of them, we believe the problems they face reveal inadequacies in current policies, employment practices and the enforcement of existing laws.

For example, workers awaiting work injury compensation payouts often face frustrating delays in receiving medical treatment, wages, as well as food and lodging, even though such complaints have been brought to the MOM’s attention.

Workers who have “agreed” to employers withholding salaries are also told by ministry officials during mediations, that, since they had agreed to these conditions, they should abide by them.

This is despite the fact that the Employment Act stipulates such “agreements” are illegal.

That the number of complaints has fallen since 2008 is not surprising, as that was when the global economy went into in crisis; economies around the world have been slowly recovering since then.

There have also been various government measures to reduce the number of foreign workers, and mega construction projects such as the casinos have been completed.

Thus, to attribute the decrease in complaints to better working conditions is dubious at best. Moreover, it is likely that there are many unreported cases because many workers are afraid that lodging complaints might cause them to lose their jobs.

While we are encouraged by the MOM’s efforts to reach out to workers in China, public education should be paired with stronger enforcement action against errant employers.

For example, from the 3,771 complaints made to the MOM in 2009, how many employers were prosecuted for failure to pay salaries?

Likewise, it is not enough for the MOM to urge workers not to sign contracts containing oppressive employment terms, when penalties against employers for drafting such contracts are weak.

As for the practice of blacklisting workers, it is not limited only to workers committing employment-related infringements as the MOM claims.

Work permit conditions warn workers against engaging in “immoral and undesirable activities, including breaking up Singaporean families”.

Such conditions are discriminatory because they do not apply to other employee categories and unfairly stigmatise work permit holders.

Although the MOM says it will blacklist workers only when it is certain that infringements have been committed, we are unsure how that certainty is achieved when, in many instances, the workers are no longer in Singapore to respond to employers’ allegations.

Employers, unions and the Government have a part to play in upholding workers’ rights. The current crisis in worker productivity should be viewed from this perspective.

When employees feel valued within the company, they are more likely to be motivated to work harder and better for their employers.