Singapore contractor sends back Bangladeshi workers

Jan 14, 2009, 1:41 GMT

Singapore - A Singapore sub-contactor is sending back 55 Bangladeshi workers, citing lack of work and projects due to the economic slowdown, according to a news report Wednesday.

Tunnel & Shaft said it has worked out compensation of 1,000 Singapore dollars (673 US dollars) per worker. However, the workers would have to return 500 Singapore dollars (336 US dollars) if re-employed.

The company was sending the workers home for two months and hopes to bring them back when the economy picks up, according to the Straits Times.

The Bangladeshis were recruited last year, with some of them just two months into employment. Some were quoted as saying they were left with an outstanding debt of 8,000 Singapore dollars (5,386 US dollars) taken as a loan to pay for their Singapore job.

Meanwhile, the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics said hundreds of foreign workers had approached it with payment and employment issues.

The organization spokesman Jolovan Wham cited a case of 30 Bangladeshi workers who were due to leave for home this week after their employers said there was no more work for them. But they only received their wages when the Manpower Ministry intervened.

He said foreign workers were being given little real protection as once their work permit was cancelled they were compelled to leave Singapore.

Singapore depends heavily on hundreds of thousands Asian labourers to carry out construction, shipyard, services and cleaning services. But the economic recession has delayed a number of projects and contracts.