Injured Workers Not Given Enough Sick Leave

This letter was written on 22 February 2011.

WE NOTE with concern Mr Tan Thian Huat's letter ("Injured workers get little time to recuperate"; Feb 14).

In the past few years, the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics and Transient Workers Count Too have assisted numerous workers in similar, if not more dire, circumstances. We have encountered a worker who was given only two days of medical leave despite suffering fractures to his knees; he actually needed months of medical attention. Another was given the same after a part of his finger was sliced off.

The ramifications to the welfare of these workers cannot be overstated. As Mr Tan mentioned, employers usually report workplace-related injuries to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) only when more than two days of medical leave have been granted to the injured worker.

It is our understanding that employers have been exploiting this loophole by ensuring that medical certificates granted to their workers do not exceed two days.

This helps errant employers to get around the reporting requirement and to deprive workers of the rights and benefits entitled to them under the Work Injury Compensation Act. Many such workers would be denied medical leave wages, and prevented from receiving compensation payable to them under the Act.

Undetected by MOM, these injured foreign workers are sometimes forcefully repatriated only a few days after incurring serious injuries.

While the notion of employers exploiting their foreign workers is not new, what is alarming is the discovery that private hospitals and clinics are contributing to this practice with impunity. When confronted, the doctors justify their actions by stating that they are primarily accountable to the workers' employers because they pay the bills, not the workers.

Regardless of who pays the bills, shouldn't a doctor's duty be to the health and welfare of his patient above all?

Many foreign workers are unaware of their rights and suffer in silence. Given how vulnerable these workers are in a foreign land and how cruel such exploitative practices are, perhaps the Ministry of Health or the Singapore Medical Council should put in place checks to allow red flags to be raised when foreign workers are granted just two days of medical leave despite serious injuries. They might also remind doctors of their ethical obligation to their patients.