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Scuffle at meeting to resolve workers' pay stalemate
The Tipper Corp dispute over the unpaid wages of 180 foreign workers turned ugly when a scuffle broke out during a high-level meeting last Monday.
The meeting held at a Tagore dormitory among the directors of Tipper Corp and Gates Offshore, its subcontractor, and three Ministry of Manpower officers was meant to resolve the issue of outstanding payment of workers' wages.
Tipper Corp director Loke Siew Fai told The Sunday Times yesterday that a person from Gates Offshore had tried to assault him and accused him of secretly trying to record the meeting with his mobile phone. Mr Loke claims this is not true.
He made a police report the next day.
Alerted by the commotion, workers living in the dormitory rushed to the canteen, where the meeting was held, and shouted at their bosses to stop fighting.
Mr Loke said he was unharmed from the incident because the MOM officers had blocked the blows meant for him.
It is not known if the MOM officers were injured. Gates Offshore could not be contacted to confirm the incident.
The saga started three weeks ago when the workers were told by one of the two subcontractors who hired them, including Gates Offshore, that there was no more work and they would not be paid their salaries.
The subcontractors then abandoned them, stopped their meal deliveries and cut off the water and electricity supply at the warehouse where they lived.
Since then, their employer Tipper Corp has provided the workers with food and moved them to a workers' dormitory in Kranji. However, the workers are still waiting for their salaries that they claim have not been paid.
In another recent case of 224 China workers who thronged the MOM building last Tuesday claiming unpaid salaries, all but two have agreed to a settlement with their employers after MOM intervened, the ministry said in a press statement yesterday.
The two workers will have their claims adjudicated by the Labour Court.
Nur Dianah Suhaimi
Scuffle at meeting to resolve workers' pay stalemate
The Tipper Corp dispute over the unpaid wages of 180 foreign workers turned ugly when a scuffle broke out during a high-level meeting last Monday.
The meeting held at a Tagore dormitory among the directors of Tipper Corp and Gates Offshore, its subcontractor, and three Ministry of Manpower officers was meant to resolve the issue of outstanding payment of workers' wages.
Tipper Corp director Loke Siew Fai told The Sunday Times yesterday that a person from Gates Offshore had tried to assault him and accused him of secretly trying to record the meeting with his mobile phone. Mr Loke claims this is not true.
He made a police report the next day.
Alerted by the commotion, workers living in the dormitory rushed to the canteen, where the meeting was held, and shouted at their bosses to stop fighting.
Mr Loke said he was unharmed from the incident because the MOM officers had blocked the blows meant for him.
It is not known if the MOM officers were injured. Gates Offshore could not be contacted to confirm the incident.
The saga started three weeks ago when the workers were told by one of the two subcontractors who hired them, including Gates Offshore, that there was no more work and they would not be paid their salaries.
The subcontractors then abandoned them, stopped their meal deliveries and cut off the water and electricity supply at the warehouse where they lived.
Since then, their employer Tipper Corp has provided the workers with food and moved them to a workers' dormitory in Kranji. However, the workers are still waiting for their salaries that they claim have not been paid.
In another recent case of 224 China workers who thronged the MOM building last Tuesday claiming unpaid salaries, all but two have agreed to a settlement with their employers after MOM intervened, the ministry said in a press statement yesterday.
The two workers will have their claims adjudicated by the Labour Court.
Nur Dianah Suhaimi
