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SINGAPORE: T. Junardhan is helping to install the
plumbing at a luxury shopping and residential tower rising in
Singapore’s prime Orchard Road tourist belt. He can also balance
your books if the need arises.
Junardhan, an Indian with a
degree in accountancy, is one of almost 150,000 foreigners laboring
in Singapore’s booming construction sector.
Some complain of poor living
conditions, over-work, homesickness and non-payment of wages.
But they say the risks and
challenges are outweighed by one thing: the lure of money far
greater than anything they could earn at home.
Junardhan, 23, of Andhra Pradesh
state, said he has an accountancy degree from a college near his
home town but low wages in that profession drove him to put down his
pen and pick up his tools overseas.
Singapore’s Ministry of
Manpower says about 145,000 foreigners are employed in the
construction sector, where two multi-billion-dollar casino
developments, subway lines, residential and other projects have
generated high demand for laborers.
The ministry did not provide a
breakdown by nationality but many of the workers come from India as
well as Bangladesh and Thailand.
The Thai embassy said 47,000 of
its nationals are working in Singapore, mostly in construction,
while the Bangladeshi embassy said about 40,000 of its citizens are
construction workers.
“I could earn 259 Singapore
dollars [190 US] a month as a new accountant in India. Here I earn
four times that,” Junardhan said.
His friend, R. Guna, told him it
would be worth his while to leave his village for the Southeast
Asian city-state of high-rise towers and expressways.
“I told him over the phone
about the salary I got working in Singapore and managed to convince
him,” said Guna, 24.
Other Indian workers said they
make 16-18 dollars a day, also much more than they would get at
home.
The salary is good—when they
get it.
Non-payment of wages is “the
number one issue” that construction workers are seeking help with
when they call the TWC2 (Transient Workers Count Too) migrant
workers’ advocacy group, said TWC2 president John Gee.
“It’s usually one worker that
calls in to seek help but he is usually part of a whole group that
has been affected,” Gee said, adding that many non-payment cases
involved smaller contractors.
Guna complained he went through
“torture” during his first stint as a construction worker five
years ago, with long hours and sometimes no break.
He said his present employer is
better and provides packaged meals.
Labourers complain that
Singapore’s rising inflation, which struck an annual 6.7 percent
in March—the highest in 26 years—is eating into their wages.
“Singapore now is very
expensive. I can spend up to seven, eight dollars a day just on food
alone,” said R. Tamilmani, 22, who arrived two years ago from
India’s Tamil Nadu state with his childhood friend V.
Muthukrishnan, 26.
As maintenance men at a
construction site they each earn 16 dollars a day, a figure which
has remained “more or less the same,” Muthukrishnan said.
“Price of makan increase, price
of Coke increase but my salary still the same,” said Muthukrishnan,
using the Singaporean Malay word “makan” for “eat”.
Junardhan remembers when he could
find a five-kilogram (11-pound) bag of rice for four dollars.
“Now, it is six dollars or
more. Even the beer is expensive now,” he said.
Foreign laborers are a familiar
sight on Singapore roads. While local motorists drive around sealed
inside their air conditioned cars, overseas workers are transported
to their jobs in the back of open trucks.
“It’s inherently risky,”
said Gee. “We are trying to persuade the authorities to change the
rules and use enclosed vans or buses as an alternative.”
Gee said workers’ accommodation
is another major issue. Some laborers live on their work sites in
quarters that leave them vulnerable to dust and pollution, he said,
adding that employees should ideally be housed away from their
workplace.
“It’s human to need to get
away from work,” Gee said.
For Junardhan, home is a
dormitory.
“We got no choice, so I have to
stay in the dormitory. The room is too small and the kitchen gets
very dirty and smelly,” he said.
It is also full of mosquitoes,
Junardhan said, quickly adding that the insects were a small price
to pay for working in Singapore.
“I love that Singapore is very
safe. You don’t get this kind of feeling in India,” he said.
Long hours on the job and a
shortage of spare cash limit the workers’ options for relaxation.
But on Sundays and public
holidays they crowd into Little India, several blocks of shops and
restaurants that are also the throbbing cultural heart of
Singapore’s own ethnic Indian minority, who make up about nine
percent of the local population.
Thai workers gather around the
Golden Mile shopping center, an ageing mall with Thai karaoke
lounges, food stalls and a supermarket that carries delicacies from
home.
For Tamilmani and Muthukrishnan,
a day off usually means sitting in a field near the Little India
subway station, eating snacks and drinking beer imported from home.
“As long as I have my beer I am
happy,” said another Indian worker, E. Rajan, 25, savoring his day
off.
“I have no free time. I need to
save money to send back home,” he said.
Their wallets may get fatter in
Singapore, but their hearts remain in India.
“I cannot wait for my contract
to finish soon so I can go back to Tamil Nadu,” Tamilmani said.
And then, after a two-month break
there, he plans to return to Singapore and work again.
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