Stories of Transient Workers in Singapore

Clueless

It was like a déjà vu of school life. I was in Singapore as a construction worker, but I was completely clueless on what there was to be done and how to do it. The requirement by the Building and Construction Authority made it compulsory for us to receive training by one of their licensed training centre. After spending a good half of my life savings on training, I finally received a work permit for Singapore.

The reality of Singapore was cruel, as I found out that while the training was necessary in paper, it was not in use for work. This meant I had to constantly adapt in order to remain relevant to the manual labour on the worksite.

At least I am luckier than some other workers, who get injured while working jobs foreign to them, or others who were let go when they could not perform their tasks. As long as I am able to continue working, there remains the hope that I can pay off my debt and provide for my family back home.

Footnote:

This depicts the violation of article 23 of the UDHR, which lists the right to favourable working conditions, as well as article 26, which states that technical and higher education be equally accessible based on merit. It is unfair to task a worker with a job he has not been trained for, as the onus should be on the employers to ensure he has sufficient qualifications to get the job done. Training centres overseas that have been licensed by Singapore authorities can also be seen to partake in unethical practices such as high prices, which violates the human right to technical education based on merit.