The crisis at the Westlite Jalan Tukang migrant worker dormitory burst into public consciousness on 13 Oct 2021, when a group of workers collectively raised their grievances with the dorm management and posted photos and videos on social media. This resulted in armoured riot police being called in, although there were no news reports of violence.
The workers’ grievances included catered meals served to them that allegedly contained insects, worms, hair and bits of newspaper (which their employer claims it has not found evidence of), and delays in isolating Covid-19 infected workers and transporting them to medical facilities. The incident also revealed that a relatively large proportion of the workers in this dorm were unvaccinated or had yet to have their vaccination status verified. It was reported that a quarter of the 2,000 workers got infected, despite the supposedly improved standards to strengthen public health resilience in migrant worker dorms.
The dorm is managed by Centurion Corp and houses mostly workers from Sembcorp Marine. Catering Solutions is being investigated by the Singapore Food Agency over meals it provided to workers in this dorm.
I have filed some questions in Parliament for the Minister for Manpower to answer on 1 Nov. I have asked what the reasons were for the delays in isolation and treatment of COVID-19 infected workers, the extensive cross infection of workers, the serving of food unfit for consumption and the relatively low vaccination rate of workers at the Westlite Jalan Tukang dormitory. I also asked what enforcement action will be taken against the operators, employers or food caterers, if they contravened any regulations.
It is possible that these unacceptable conditions are not isolated to the Tukang dorm. I therefore asked if MOM has received similar complaints from workers in other dormitories, and if it has acted on them.
This is the full text of my Parliamentary question:
Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song: To ask the Minister for Manpower (a) what are the reasons for the delays in isolation and treatment of COVID-19 infected workers, the extensive cross infection of workers, the serving of food unfit for consumption and the relatively low vaccination rate of workers at the Westlite Jalan Tukang dormitory; (b) what enforcement action will be taken against the operators, employers or food caterers; and (c) whether the Ministry has received and acted upon similar complaints from workers in other dormitories.
My Workers’ Party parliamentary colleagues, Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh (Aljunied), Leon Perera (Aljunied), Faisal Manap (Aljunied), He Ting Ru (Sengkang) and Dennis Tan (Hougang) have also filed PQs on this matter.
