THE THINGS THAT I FIND OUT IN SINGAPORE REAGRDING ABOUT LABOUR

I came to Singapore in November’2008. Within two months, I need to hunt the job. After one month later, I got the job already. In my first job, I don’t know about general workers. I had to do office job only. So I no need to deal with workers and other employment issues. I just do accounting and financial issues only. In 2009, I change my employer. My new employer is the sub-contractor of Keppel Singmarine Pte LTd. My new position is Accounts Executive and Administration. So I have to manage accounting, financial and labor issues. When I start to handle about things related to workers, I get more knowledge about foreign workers how they have to stay and work in Singapore. That is not only Myanmar, also Bangladeshi, Indian and China. The people outside from Singapore are the foreign workers. All of foreign workers want to work and save the money for their family by working here. But they are not educated persons. So they have to find out agents or direct employers and need to pay agent money. They pay a lot of money to work in Singapore. For my knowledge, Bangladeshi and Indian have to pay minimum S$ 2,000.00. (Singapore Dollar Two Thousand). The fees depend on the experience. If they have experience, they no need to pay too much. If the employer is good, they can get the good housing and good job. Otherwise, they cannot get good things. There was one case in Singapore in July’2010: the workers stayed and live in Containers and had the shower from drain near Mosafa. Because the employer wants to save money and never provide proper housing. As per Singapore Ministry of Manpower rules and regulation, if the employers recruit general workers (WP), they need to supply Dormitory (The housing for workers) and insurance matters. But the housing cost and foreign workers levy is too high. For Work Permit holders (WP), the employers need to pay S$160.00 per person per month. There are some changes for the levy rate depends on the Industry. My company is in Marine Industry so that we have to pay S$160.00. Sometimes the companies don’t have money and they cannot pay workers’ salary. But the family from the home county doesn’t know about this and they have to pay debt which they took from others with interest for the agent fees. And some family spends a lot of money on gambling (၂လံုးထီ၊ ၃လံုး ခ်ဲ ၊ ေဘာလံုး). That is not good for the family leader. Because he worked in other country and never spend extra and save for the family but the family is so proud and never think for this person. Because they don’t know about how he worked in Singapore. My company never recruits Myanmar. Bangladeshi, Indian and China are also foreigner so that I can translate my feeling as Myanmar. The reason why I write this letter is to share my feeling about foreign workers in Singapore. I am not writer so I don’t know how to write in proper way. But I try to manage to show my feeling. Thanks for reading this letter.

Zinmar (31/07/2010) Saturady