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VIBRATIONS are rattling your home and there is underground tunnelling work going on nearby for the construction of an MRT line. Should you be worried?

While such vibrations are “to be expected”, especially where tunnel boring machines cut through hard rocks, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has assured Singaporeans living in the vicinity of these sites, that safety measures here are comparable with those adopted internationally.

All tunnelling works are monitored “round the clock” by an array of instruments. And as a further safeguard, workers are also stationed at ground level “to keep a close watch”.

The authority was responding to Today’s queries reflecting questions raised by some Singaporeans after the road cave-in at Cornwall Garden. But before any tunnelling work is undertaken, the residents will be notified and their concerns addressed.

“In all our tunnelling works, a project communications team, comprising LTA’s staff and our contractor’s engineers, engages the residents and other stakeholders in the vicinity of the works,” said an LTA spokesperson.

“The project communications team explains the nature of the works and is always on-hand to address stakeholders’ concerns,” he added.

And if further clarifications are needed, they can always call either the contractor’s or LTA’s hotline at 1800-2255-582 (1800 CALL-LTA).

The Cornwall Garden road cave-in has been a hot topic among residents living in areas where new MRT lines are being built.

Last week, an 8m by 7m stretch of road disappeared into 3m-deep crater. No one was hurt in the accident, which occurred above a tunnel boring machine where works were taking place for the train line connecting the new stations at Holland Village and Farrer Road.

Nonetheless, the authority would like to assure residents near new MRT lines that this tunnelling method is a “relatively safe operation with manageable level of risks and is still the most efficient and effective way of constructing tunnels”.

It is also necessary, added the spokesperson. “Underground land transport infrastructure is still the most effective way to optimise our dense landscape,” he said. 

Source : Weekend Today - 31 May 2008

54 workers crammed in one room

They were living in squalid conditions - 38 foreign workers squeezed into a tiny, dirty shophouse - when Ministry of Manpower (MOM) officials ordered their employer to find them acceptable accommodation.

But the employer allegedly told the workers off for going to the authorities - and moved them into an even worse dormitory as ‘punishment’.

Their new home: A bedbug-infested dorm in a converted factory building in MacPherson, packed with more than 600 foreign workers from various companies on two floors.

The New Paper entered one room, measuring 25ft by 20ft (about the size of a two-room HDB flat), with 54workers were crammed inside.

The building, at Kampong Ampat, is on lease from HDB and the dorm is on the list of approved dorms on MOM’s website.

The foreign workers from the first dorm said they did not dare complain to MOM again, as their boss had allegedly threatened to send them back to India and get them blacklisted from working in Singapore again.

But their employer, Rite Choice Technologies, denied this.

Its director, Mr V Raju, said he was unaware of the conditions at the new dorm, which he stressed is on the list of approved dorms.

His company, which was fined $2,000 for the previous offence, is now being investigated by MOM for failure to ensure the well-being of their workers, along with the other companies which had housed their workers at Kampong Ampat.

Said a foreign worker in his 20s: ‘This place is much worse, I’ve lost 4kg just by staying here.

‘It’s more crowded, it’s very smelly and dirty, and the bedbugs are worse. I can’t get any sleep.

‘How can a person stay here?’

After The New Paper notified the authorities, MOM officers investigated the dorm on 22 May.

Said its spokesman: ‘We found that the workers were being housed in overcrowded conditions, with more than 600 foreign workers crammed into the third and fourth storeys of the factory-converted dormitory.’

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) also inspected the premises and found fire safety infringements relating to overcrowding and obstruction to fire escape routes, said LTC N Subhas, director of its public affairs department.

As for the other allegations by the Rite Choice Technologies workers, MOM’s spokesman said: ‘MOM is also assisting the workers in resolving their complaints on other employment-related issues.

‘We will also facilitate change of employers for foreign workers who have been victimised.’

Four Rite Choice Technologies workers agreed to speak to The New Paper on condition of anonymity.

They said they had put up with the conditions at their former dorm at a Tanjong Katong shophouse until a workplace dispute on 20 Mar.

That’s when they lodged a complaint with MOM.

The 38 workers - 17 from Rite Choice Technologies and the rest from its associate companies - had been squeezed into three bedrooms in the 1,800sq ft shophouse. The Straits Times had carried a report on it, ‘Shophouse of horrors’, on 1 Apr.

They slept on bunk beds, shared a single bathroom and toilet, and put up with overloaded power points and regular power trips.

Said one worker in Tamil: ‘MOM came and interviewed us. They came back one more time to check on our well-being, then gave us a number to call if we had any more problems.

‘They told us not to be scared.’

But he alleged that Mr Raju later questioned the workers and threatened them. He said: ‘He told us he will not be affected by this complaint. They cannot touch a hair on his head, and we will be punished for going to MOM.’

BEDBUG INFESTATION

In early May, the workers were moved to Kampong Ampat, where they slept on triple-decker beds.

The bedbug infestation was worse.

Many of the workers had mortgaged their land and houses in their home country, and could not afford to be sent back with huge debts over their heads.

They earn about $500 a month here, and usually spend their first year working off their loans.

Many are single, and a common dream is to earn enough money, then go home and get married.

Said one worker: ‘We thought in Singapore, we could make 25,000rupees ($800) a month and send back money. We were told that if work hard, we can make good money for our families.

‘If we knew what we know now, we wouldn’t have come here.’

But Mr Raju claimed it was a coincidence that his company was facing its second investigation in just over two months for failure to ensure the well-being of his workers.

He claimed he was not aware there were violations at the Kampong Ampat dorm until The New Paper called him.

‘I’ve never been there, I’m not aware of the conditions,’ he said.

He faxed over his contract with the dorm operator to show that the arrangement was legitimate.

Of his workers’ allegations that he had threatened them, he said: ‘No such thing. When did I say this, tell me? Can they prove it?’

He said that despite his company hitting the headlines last month, he did not send home a worker who had made allegations against it.

‘They are still working for me,’ he said. ‘I’m not planning to send back any one, I have jobs for them.’

His company was served a termination notice by the dorm operator, ISO Industry, and 26 of his 90 workers who are still staying there will have to leave by 26 Jun.

ISO Industry’s managing director, Mr Patrick Peh, said the company has admitted to the overcrowding in the Kampong Ampat dorm to MOM, and will be rectifying the conditions.

He said most of the workers will be moved to an approved dorm on Yishun Avenue 7 by this Sunday.

‘While they are away, we are going to improve the facilities and conditions. We hope to satisfy all conditions set out by the relevant authorities,’ he said.

HDB is also conducting an investigation because it was not informed that Rite Choice workers were staying there.

Mr Peh said this was an oversight, and ISO had informed HDB of the other sub-tenants.

The MOM spokesman reminded employers that, as part of the work permit conditions, they must provide proper housing for their foreign workers that comply with the requirements set by the various government agencies.

‘Errant employers will be prosecuted and barred from hiring foreign workers,’ she said.

‘MOM conducts audit checks on the approved dormitories regularly.’

What happened

20 Mar: Rite Choice Technologies workers report to Manpower Ministry about conditions in Tanjong Katong dorm - 38 workers crammed on double-decker beds in dirty, smelly shophouse with single toilet.

MOM orders Rite Choice to provide acceptable accommodation for workers. Fines it $2,000.

Early May: 26 workers moved into Kampong Ampat dorm, housing 600 workers on two floors of converted factory. They sleep on triple-decker beds

Source : New Paper - 30 May 2008

Workers keep quiet out of fear

When I walked into the building at No 2, Kampong Ampat, it was like I was entering a different world.

A dingy staircase led to the third storey of the building, where the workers we were visiting were housed.

We seemed to walk through a maze to reach the dorm rooms, even having to walk past toilets and open bathrooms, all the while carefully avoiding puddles of dirty water and piles of rubbish along the way.

It was hard to believe that people lived here but, as we were to discover later, more than 600 were housed by employers on two floors; in some cases, 54 to a room.

Yes, that’s 54 people in a room measuring 25ft by 20ft.

How is that possible?

Well, there are 18 triple-decker beds in the 15ft-high room, packed next to each other like crates.

The only space left are the small corridors to allow access to the beds.

Perhaps calling them beds is not quite accurate, because there is no mattress or bedding at all.

There are only wooden planks for the workers to lie on, and they have lined the planks with masking tape to prevent bedbugs from getting at them through the cracks.

I tried to sit on a bottom bunk bed, which was centimetres from the floor. As I sat down, my neck was already at the level of the next bunk, meaning I or the workers couldn’t even sit up on the ‘beds’ without hitting our heads on the bunk above.

Clothes were strewn all over the place, washed and hung to dry in any available space. At the side of the beds, if there was space available, suitcases were piled up and functioned as makeshift tables.

Even with the windows open, a heavy smell hung in the air, making me feel claustrophobic.

It was like stumbling onto one of those farms where they force-feed chickens and house them in inhumane conditions.

But we are talking about people who are living and working among us.

Why are only a few of them willing to come forward and complain?

After pleading with us to ensure that they remain nameless, some workers told us that they live in constant fear.

Fear of being sent home for complaining.

Fear of being deprived the chance to do overtime, so that they can earn slightly more than $500 a month to pay off the debts they took to get to Singapore.

Fear of being blacklisted by bosses who can speak English.

Fear of telling their families back home that their ‘Singapore dream’ has become a nightmare, that they are now financially worse off than when they left their countries, and that they may lose their homes and land which they put up as collateral for loans.

AT EMPLOYERS’ MERCY

Social workers such as Mr Jolovan Wham believe that the problem is systemic, as the workers are joined to their employers at the hip due to the work-permit process, and feel that they are at their complete mercy.

Unfortunately, too often, they are right.

The workers we spoke to have blown the whistle on two occasions.

The first time they did, they were moved into even worse accommodations, allegedly as punishment.

If things don’t get better this time around, or if the workers get sent home, which is their worst fear, then we have to wonder if we have the correct system in place to protect their rights.

Source : New Paper - 30 May 2008

Moderate 4-10% growth seen for 2008: Knight Frank

The rate of price increase of Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats will further decelerate in the next six to nine months, resulting in a relatively moderate 4-10 per cent growth for the whole of 2008.

Knight Frank director (research and consultancy) Nicholas Mak added: ‘If the local economy were to slip into a recession in 2008, overall prices of HDB resale flats could vary between a 2 per cent contraction and a 3 per cent growth for the year.’

Knight Frank’s projections are based on HDB’s resale price index, which increased in Q1′08 by 3.7 per cent over the previous quarter. But Mr Mak explained that price movements in the resale market are difficult to project because data on average valuations are not available even if median prices, which is likely to include cash-over-valuation (COV), is.

As such, Mr Mak expected that median COV of all resale flats, which fell to $21,000 in Q1′08 from $22,000 in Q4′08, could continue to fall this year.

Another possible cause for lament is that potential HDB upgraders - a significant factor in private mass market housing - could disappear in sync with falling HDB resale transactions.

In Q1′08, transactions fell about 6 per cent to 6,358 units from 6,748 units in Q4′07.

Knight Frank also believed that HDB upgraders have been supporting the private secondary market, which saw 3,521 units transacted in Q4′07.

While it did not have precise numbers of HDB upgraders buying into the secondary market, it noted that in Q4′07, the greatest number of private secondary market transactions occurred in the Outside the Central Region (OCR), and was ‘attributable to the HDB upgraders bracket’.

And Knight Frank believed that there could be an emerging resistance to swelling home prices.

In January, Knight Frank noted that City View @ Boon Keng, under HDB’s Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS), pushed prices to $727,000 for a five-room unit. While the launch generated a lot of buzz, at end March 2008, 250 of the 714 flats available were still unsold.

‘The issue that arises is the validity of the pricing of such DBSS flats. Keeping in mind that there are more of such developments proposed in places like Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Toa Payoh, Simei and Bedok, and given that they are still bound by public housing rules such as the income ceiling of buyers, one could begin to wonder about the intrinsic affordability of public housing initiatives,’ Mr Mak said.

Source : Business Times - 30 May 2008

Proposed sale to consortium fails to materialise

The proposed sale of Raffles Hotel is off.

A spokeswoman for the consortium led by former Credit Suisse banker Mark Pawley that was to have bought the Singapore icon confirmed yesterday: ‘We regret to say that the sale will not be completed as planned. The consortium is very disappointed with the current outcome as we had hoped for a win-win solution involving all parties.

‘This would have involved an assured distinct identity for Raffles Hotel as a flagship for Singapore in the international hospitality industry and a rejuvenation of the hotel. We will continue to actively explore other opportunities to contribute to Singapore.’

She declined to give reasons for the deal not being completed, citing confidentiality clauses. The deal was reported to have been in the range of about $650 million and would have included the adjoining shopping arcade. But when asked about talk that there might have been some issues with the source of the money for the purchase, she replied strongly: ‘The source of the money has always been the same. This has never been an issue and there is no basis for these allegations.’

On suggestions that the consortium might have faced funding problems, the spokeswoman said: ‘We have the money. To say otherwise is baseless.’

BT understands that the completion of the sale was expected yesterday. The in-principle agreement for the deal was announced on May 8.

Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI), the owner of the landmark hotel and adjacent shopping arcade, was to have secured a very long-term management contract, reportedly for 40 years, to manage the hotel under its hotel management arm, Raffles Hotels & Resorts.

Colony Capital holds about 40 per cent in FRHI while Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Hotels International owns the rest.

FRHI’s May 8 statement had said that similar to its past real estate transactions, any hotels sold would continue to be part of the company’s hotel collection and managed under long-term management contracts. Industry observers say that this is crucial to FRHI’s plans to spin off and float a hotel management arm.

‘Most existing hotel groups would be reluctant to purchase a hotel with a long-term management contract from the seller. And frankly, Fairmont Raffles would jealously guard their proprietary management systems from any potential hotel owner that is also in the business,’ a market watcher said.

Source : Business Times - 30 May 2008