SINGAPORE – Bangladeshi migrant worker Hossain Midul has sent almost all of his $600 salary – including overtime pay – home every month since he came to Singapore in July 2025.
But for the last two months, the 24-year-old has not sent anything home as he has not been paid, he said. His employer also cancelled his work permit without explanation in early October, he added. It was due to expire in July 2027.
Typically, about half of what he earns goes towards financing a $9,000 bank loan he had taken out to pay agent fees to come to Singapore, while most of the remainder feeds his family of six in the western Pabna district in Bangladesh.
“My family has very little, so I left home to support them. But now I have no work and no salary – I’m very scared they will have to suffer,” said Hossain.
He is among nearly 240 migrant workers from two process sector firms who have not received their pay for two to three months. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in a statement on Oct 24 that it is currently investigating Process Maintenance Solutions and Jurong Technical & Construction.
The workers, mostly from Bangladesh, are getting help from MOM and the Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) on salary claims filed with the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management.
Five out of the 15 workers from Process Maintenance Solutions whom The Straits Times spoke to said they had received their owed wages in October. But four workers from Jurong Technical & Construction said on Oct 24 that they remained unpaid.
Checks by ST show the two firms are linked, with their workers housed in the same Tuas dormitories. ST also understands the two firms’ current directors have taken over companies previously held by a man who was arrested in July for suspected employment-related offences in a case that MOM believes involves a criminal syndicate.
Anxieties over wages, future
Workers from both companies said they stopped receiving their salaries in August and added that their work permits have been cancelled in batches since late September.
The situation has made workers anxious over their future in Singapore and their families’ plight back home. All the workers ST spoke to said they have been here for less than two years.
Hossain, who said he is owed $1,800 by Process Maintenance Solutions, added: “Many of our families sold land and cattle, and we took loans to come here. Some people also borrowed money from relatives.”
Jurong Technical & Construction worker Saimon Islam, 21, said he is resigned that he might receive only a portion of the roughly $1,800 that he is owed.
Separately, several workers said they had paid recruitment agents upwards of $12,000 while in Bangladesh to secure a process sector job in Singapore. Process work involves specialised industrial, manufacturing and maintenance work at locations such as Jurong Island.
They were told their employer would enrol them in Singapore’s construction certification course after a year of work, but only one worker out of the 15 told ST he had been sent for the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) certification.
Riyag, 26, who has not been sent for the course, said some workers on process permits seek BCA certification to qualify for work in the construction sector, which pays better.
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