Workers in salary tussle were not staging protest, did not violate public order laws: Police

SINGAPORE — The migrant workers who gathered outside the site of the old Central Provident Fund building last week were waiting to talk to their employer about their salary claims and were not staging a protest, the police said.

In a statement on Sunday (March 10) night, the police told TODAY that their preliminary findings showed that the workers from Stargood Construction had not gathered deliberately to publicise a cause or campaign, or to support or oppose the views or actions of any person or group.

Hence, they have not committed an offence under the Public Order Act, which regulates assemblies and processions in public places, the police spokesman added.

TODAY reported that the workers staged what was initially thought to be a sit-down protest last Wednesday, claiming they were owed nearly S$300,000 in payments for work carried out on the site in the Central Business District between December last year and February this year.

The police said the workers had already been in touch with their employer about their wage claims last Monday and Tuesday, but did not gather outside the site office on those days.

Stargood Construction’s owner Lin Jie Biao, 33, had told TODAY that the company still owed S$230,000 in unpaid salaries, as he had forked out some S$70,000 after borrowing from friends and family.

The police said they first received information last Wednesday morning about a group of workers who had gathered outside a construction site office on Boon Tat Link.

Arriving at the scene, police officers observed that 20 foreign construction workers were seated in an orderly manner. They told officers they were awaiting an opportunity to talk to their employer about their unpaid wages.

“The police advised the workers to return to their dormitory and that the Ministry of Manpower would follow up with them,” said the police spokesman.

“They complied with the advice and returned to their dormitory.”

That afternoon, Ministry of Manpower officers met the workers at their dormitory. The ministry is helping the workers with their salary claims and is investigating their employer for salary-related offences under the Employment Act, Singapore’s main labour law.

Aside from their salary woes, the workers are facing an uncertain fate, as they could be evicted from their dormitory.

Stargood Construction had apparently stopped paying rent last month, but a two-month deposit that the company placed previously will cover the cost until the end of this month, TODAY reported.

The Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC), a non-governmental organisation, has been lending the workers a hand. If it cannot work out an arrangement with the dormitory and the workers are evicted, the centre said it could put them up in its shelter.

The welfare of the workers is its “immediate priority”, said MWC chairman Yeo Guat Kwang.