The Building Construction and Timber Industries Employees’ Union (BATU) will work with the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) to organise more programmes and amenities for foreign workers, said the organization in the light of recommendations by the Committee of Inquiry into the Little India Riot released on 30 June 2014.
In an interview with NTUC This Week, BATU’s Deputy Executive Secretary, Jennie Yeo, who was a witness during the inquiry, said what was important was for the union to know the needs of the foreign workers first before working on the programmes for them.
It hopes to work with MWC and other organisations to organise events like simple English classes and safety games.
On improving the lives of migrant workers, Ms Yeo added that it would be good to provide foreign workers with more information about work issues and what was happening both locally and back in their countries. This could be done by providing more newspapers from their hometowns at the dormitories.
“We (BATU) have noted that some foreign workers were not sure of their rights and have easily been misled by some irresponsible lawyers, paying large sums of money for little services provided on work injury claims. We should help to make them understand their rights and responsibilities,” said Ms Yeo.
Original article written by Ramesh Subarraman, and can be found in NTUC This Week (13 July 2014)
