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To work without rights is to be powerless in the face of abuse

Domestic workers face many forms of abuse in Singapore, and their limited rights under the law give them few ways to protect themselves.

By Sam Okyere and John Gee
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I'm John Gee, and I've worked with Transient Workers Count Too, a Singaporean NGO, since 2003. I've been president, vice president, and I currently work on research with the organisation.

Sam Okyere (oD): Would you be able to tell us some of the key issues faced by transient workers in Singapore, or in the region broadly speaking?

John: The major issues would be things like domestic workers who still don't get days off. We reckon that about 35% to 40% of domestic workers in Singapore still don't get days off. One of the big issues of complaint for all migrant workers is the amount of recruitment fees they pay. It ranges from something like five and a half to six months of salary deductions for Filipino work domestic workers, to something like 16 to 17 months for Bangladeshi construction workers.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0