Bosses faking it to cut costs

Sub-standard conditions: This zinc-roof hut at a construction site is shared by seven workers. Housing workers in such places is much cheaper than in approved dorms. - The Straits Times / Asia News Network

ERRANT bosses have been listing false addresses on a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) online database while housing their foreign workers in sub-standard conditions.

They declare that the men are living in approved housing such as purpose-built dormitories, while actually putting them up in cheaper places such as shophouses, factory-converted dorms or construction site quarters. It comes down to money, said Debbie Fordyce, a volunteer at welfare group Transient Workers Count Too.