By Angela Lim – June 24th, 2010
Two years ago, a Bangladeshi construction worker’s young, promising life disintegrated right before his very eyes when a 50-kg bag of cement fell onto his back and left him permanently paralysed.
The bag of cement fractured 29-year-old Hafizul Islam Kolfil Uddin’s spine while he was working inside a 4.5m deep trench in Woodlands Avenue 3. Upon returning home to Bangladesh, the paraplegic was forcefully separated from his fiancee by her parents and lived alone, often lying helplessly in bed for days on end, soiled and incontinent.
Now, Hafizul will receive what might be the highest amount awarded by a court to a foreign worker permanently disabled after an industrial accident.
After the Commissioner for Labour offered him a work injury compensation of a mere S$128,000, Hafizul — his future shattered and his life in pieces – took his case to the High Court. Employer Poh Huat Heng Construction, and two other firms have now been ordered to pay him a total of S$910,000 to cover his loss of future earnings, the cost of hiring a full-time nurse and other medical expenses.
But Hafizul is just but one of the many hundreds of thousands of unskilled and semi-skilled foreign workers from India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China and Malaysia who put their bodies in the line of danger in construction sites around Singapore everyday.
Two accidents involving foreign workers ferried in lorries in the past week have again put the spotlight on foreign worker safety. Nine were hurt in the latest crash that occurred Wednesday morning along Jurong Port Road.
In the first and more serious crash, Chinese nationals Li Jia Jun, 40, Li Xian Long, 45, and Qiu Min Jun, 46, were not lucky enough to survive.
The Tuesday morning accident left the trio of workers dead after the driver lost control of his vehicle and mounted a metal divider on the PIE. Police confirmed that there were 15 people riding in the back of the lorry even though it was only authorised to carry 13 in its cargo bay.
The lorry did not have a canopy and had yet to be retrofitted to comply with Land Transport Authority regulations, which come into effect only in 2012. As a result, fourteen of the workers were sent to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for treatment and three were left dead because of the oversight.
A friend of one of the dead workers Li Xian Long told the The Straits Times, “He worked hard and made sacrifices to send money to his family.” Li is survived by his wife and two sons in their 20s.
Foreign workers often leave home and family in the hope of getting decent, honest work in Singapore. What little they earn, they save and remit back to their family in order that they might have a chance of a decent life and education. When serious accidents happen, few are as lucky as Hafizul to obtain sufficient compensation.
Should Singaporeans be more appreciative of the risks and sacrifice migrant workers take when seeking employment in Singapore and the hard, oft-times back-breaking work they put into constructing our roads, buildings, condos and integrated resorts?
Or do we, all too often, take their sacrifice and sweat for granted?
I think that this construction worker is really lucky to obtain S$910,000 of compensation fee.However,it is actually an exchange of being separated from his fiancee,having to live alone and often lying helplessly in bed for days.I believe that if he was able to choose between the money and having the chance of living a normal life as before,he would want to be able to be with his fiancee and have the ability to work and look after himself instead of having so much money but not able to spend it happily.Sometimes,money is not every thing in life and it would be meaningless if you were to lose something that you cherish a lot such as your family members.
Migrant workers often come to Singapore to seek for employment opportunities and to improve their living conditions as well as to provide financial support for their family back in their hometown.They often take up jobs which Singaporeans find it to be tough and challenging such as being a construction worker.These job requires a lot of energy and they often need to work under the hot sun to earn a living. Actually,we should be appreciative of them as they risk their live and make sacrifices in order to build infrastructure for us to use and resorts for fun and leisure purposes.Without them,we would not be able to enjoy such facilities. Therefore,we should not look down on those people who are doing these kind of jobs and not to take them for granted.Lastly,proper safety precautions should be taken care of and the workers themselves must be careful when they are doing a dangerous job to minimise tragedy from happening.
