What was most interesting was that my boss told one of the guys to go out and buy another one as it was needed urgently. Well, I thought that was it... why kick up a fuss over the loss of a ladder? It must have been either kept away somewhere in the shop or someone must have borrowed it and have not returned it yet. So either borrow one for the time being or buy another one like he did.
"How can this be?" I thought to myself. So if the boss loses money when his business is bad, does that mean we have to pay to run his business? Does he share his profits with us when he makes lots of profits? I bet not! What if after a few days, he happens to find the ladder somewhere in the shop, then what? Would we get a refund of our $8? This is really unreasonable.
Hmmm.... well, beggars cannot be choosers! I'm just voicing my thoughts here and to let readers know what working as a migrant worker is like... the perils we have to go through every day. As I said before, its not all a bed of roses. But if we want to choose to work here, we either accept that we will be $8 poorer the next month or we have to find somewhere else to work!
I have read with interest your posts here, and have enjoyed following your experiences in pursuing employment abroad.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am very disappointed and a bit angry to read of the treatment by some of your employers there, who withhold earnings or demand payment for such things as T-shirts or a missing ladder. I am an American living in San Francisco, and we would never allow such abuse of workers to occur if it became known.
I would have thought that Singapore was more progressive in the area of workers rights and protections.
It is especially disappointing to realize that, even in a situation where the employer is benefiting so greatly from taking advantage of lower-cost labor from a foreign country, they yet still are so greedy, so selfish, so cruel, that they feel the need to even pursue these petty and small ways of ripping you off.
I hope you will continue to chronicle your experiences and adventures here on your blog. As a devoted reader, I will enjoy continuing to follow those adventures, and I wish you all the best luck and good fortune in the coming days.
Sorry to hear about this, Li Jing. It really angered me to see foreign being treated like this.. i can go on and on about the many ugly sides of employers here, but i think that's not the point. Now i know the reasons why you were unhappy working there and returned to China. I pray that you won't come across the same thing ever again. All the best!
ReplyDelete谢谢黄瓜，我会很快回来。 。 。很快!
ReplyDeleteThank you Shaw, for your comment and for reading my blog. Yes, Singapore is a beautiful place but there are many "third world" employers operating in a "first world" country. It's just my luck but then my previous employer was a good one. I should be coming back to Singapore to work again soon and I will update more often. Hope to see you on my blog more often... thank you once again for reading. Do keep in touch!
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