Singapore’s migrant worker wage saga spotlights potential loopholes

A labour saga in Singapore involving migrant workers going unpaid for months after a contractor fled the country has raised questions about wage policies for unskilled staff, even as authorities respond with the city state’s characteristic speed and efficiency.

Last week, hundreds of migrant workers in services such as air conditioning, plumbing and construction showed up at the Ministry of Manpower building in a rare labour confrontation in the city state.

On Sunday, Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash said the employer in question, Ramu Palani Velu, a Singapore permanent resident and director of KPA Engineering, SK Industries and VVR Plant Engineering, had returned to Singapore and was helping with investigations. His passport has been impounded.

Authorities and the labour movement moved quickly to help the more than 400 workers lodge claims, cover their living expenses and secure new employment, with a number of companies offering vacancies.

Laavanya Kathiravelu, an associate professor of sociology at Nanyang Technological University, said the ministry’s quick response “should be lauded in this instance”.

“However, it should not make us forget that there are systemic problems in the current arrangement that places disproportionate power in the hands of employers,” she said.

Under Singapore law, migrant workers cannot apply for their own work permit since the entire system is anchored in employer sponsorship, meaning bosses control the work passes of migrants typically employed in construction, shipyard and maintenance trades.