An NUS Student and An NGO Volunteer. Now, An MOM Intern.
03 September 2015
On 20th July 2015, a group of eight students from
NUS’s Law Faculty joined MOM as part of a 14 day ‘Frontline Ops Internship’.
Coordinated by the Workplace Policy and Strategy Division (WPSD), the
internship would expose them to our frontline work at the Customer
Responsiveness Department (CRD), the Foreign Manpower Management Division(FMMD),
the Work Injury Compensation Department (WICD) and the Labour Relations and
Workplaces Division (LRWD).
The school had requested for some of their students
to be given exposure to MOM’s frontline work. As these students had experienced
internship stints with NGOs, the school wanted them to also experience and understand
the intricacies of MOM’s work in managing migrant workers’ issues.
This was a first for us. As it turned out, it was a
positive and enriching for both us and the students.
One of our interns, Will Jude, shares his Frontline
Ops Internship experience at MOM.
An NUS
Student and an NGO Volunteer. And Now, An MOM Intern.
My name is Will Jude and I am a third year student
from NUS’s Law Faculty.
The day was 20th July 2015. A day that would always
bring a smile as I thought through what waited in store for me the next 3
weeks.
Allow me to backtrack a little. I’ve been a
volunteer at an NGO for about two and a half years and I was curious about
MOM’s work. Why curious you may ask? Well, as a volunteer, I was not allowed to
interact with MOM. What I heard of were only stories. I now had the opportunity
to see and experience firsthand, how MOM works.
When word got out that the school was selecting
students for an ops internship stint with MOM, it didn’t take me long to decide
that I should apply for it. I knew NGOs operated differently and I wanted to
understand the dynamics faced by the Ministry at the operations and policy
level in managing migrant worker issues.
Having found my way to MOMSC earlier than expected
on my first day, it wasn’t long before I caught up with my fellow NUS Law
undergraduates. Safe to say, we were all pretty anxious. We knew that this
would be different from all other internships that we had gone through. This
was not an internship that required us to sit behind a desk, stare at a monitor
and cross our legs. On the contrary, we would be at the frontline, and on our
feet, meeting members of the public.
We noticed a pattern once the internship commenced.
We would be rotated across different departments and these rotations usually
kick-started with a briefing covering the department’s work. Following that, we
were given exposure to their frontline work. This worked well for us as it gave
us a good understanding of the department’s work before we got our hands dirty.
It was also very useful that we had daily debrief sessions allowing us to make
clarifications based on our observations.
The first week was focused on issues surrounding
Foreign Domestic Workers – from what happens prior to their entry in Singapore,
the SIP that they have to attend upon arrival, to the protocols in place to
ensure their safe working environment.
Having volunteered at an NGO and attended to FDWs,
quite frankly, the SIP was an eye opener. I now understand the efforts taken by
MOM to acclimatise FDWs to employment conditions here and ensure a safe working
environment. I do feel though that there’s more that we could still do for
FDWs. For starters, perhaps we could increase the frequency of the SIP? Maybe
we could also consider improving the content of the SIP and its training
materials? While MOM’s efforts to address the basic needs of FDWs are
commendable, this exposure left me with the impression that there’s still room
to help FDWs more. MOM could perhaps consider tapping on tertiary students like
me in its outreach to FDWs and their employers.
When I was with FMMD, I sat in for a briefing
tailored for new Special Pass holders and it impressed me. What I liked was how
the programme was translated into multiple native languages and filled with
real life anecdotes. All this time, it was kept simple and easy for the target
audience to understand.
I spent my second week at the Customer Relations
Department. In less than a day, I was in awe of the frontline officers. Ever so
often, they had to switch gears to deal with a myriad of issues. There were
complex ones that involved multiple smaller issues and then, there were also
cases involving protracted issues. It was heartening to see the officers remain
patient, calm and composed when explaining intricate processes such as the work
injury compensation scheme. Time and again, I was amazed by the professionalism
these officers displayed and their depth of knowledge.
One common challenge faced by frontline officers
would be the accusations that are hurled at them. This usually happens when
they provide advice that is deemed disadvantageous by the receiving party. I
witnessed how an employer harshly criticised an officer for apparently taking
the side of an employee. I was surprised when told that this happens quite
frequently. Frankly, I have no idea how MOM’s frontline officers manage to
maintain their composure when dealing with such unreasonable members of the
public without letting it affect them. I quietly wondered to myself, how they kept
themselves motivated to turn up for work each day?
I was enjoying my experience at MOM so much that
before I knew it, it was already the third and final week. I was looking
forward to this week and not because it signalled the last days of my
internship. In actual fact, the week presented me with the chance to interview
departing migrant workers and understand their sentiments towards their
employment experience in Singapore.
At the NGO, the migrant workers I interacted with
always seemed to face countless employment issues. This survey gave me the
chance to get in touch with the larger migrant worker population. I suspected
they may not have kind words in store for me during the interview. I was wrong,
and gladly so.
For all the interviews, I made sure that I made no
mention that I was from MOM so that I wouldn’t influence the workers’
responses. What surprised me was, the workers interviewed seemed generally
happy with their employment here. I actually heard phrases such as “when
there’s MOM, why worry about employers cheating us?” and “if any
problem, we know MOM will fight for us”. You know, I really didn’t make
up any of these for the purpose of this blog post.
I was truly surprised to hear the positive comments
by the migrant workers but it was not so for my MOM
mentor, Naz. When I related to him what the workers had said about MOM, he had
that smirk which seemed to say, “tell me something I do not know”. It was cue
for me to stop telling him more positive comments. At one point though, Naz
actually had to come out to say that he didn’t plant the workers there when we
received more positive feedback!
Charis and Mark, surveying Indian migrant workers.
Charis and Mark came across an employer taking a group photo with his
departing workers. They even took ‘wefies’ afterwards! Some of us were
surprised at this sight and had not expected such good relations between
employers and migrant worker employees.
In our final week, we also had the opportunity to
sit in for Labour Court and advisory sessions. I really appreciated that the
judges spent some time to explain their thought process to us in a candid
manner, a rare opportunity in any other Court. For the advisory sessions
however, I felt that we could probably serve migrant workers better by
displaying more empathy towards them.
My last stop at MOM was with WICD. Here, I was
given a fresh perspective of WIC issues ranging from the options available to
the workers and the procedures and requirement of the relevant Acts. The WICD
team had kindly arranged for us to hear from an employer on the challenges in
managing WIC cases. I must say it was a very interesting session and it struck
me that managing FW issues involves numerous complexities and are rarely
straightforward.
Before the blink of an eye, our learning journey at
MOM had come to an end. In three weeks, I must say that my eyes were opened to
the complex landscape that MOM operates in when managing migrant worker issues.
I learnt to appreciate how as a Ministry, MOM needs to balance competing
priorities and policy objectives. I can safely say that while MOM may not have
found a solution to eliminate each and every concern faced by its stakeholders,
it is certainly on the right track.
Group photo right at the end of our internship. From left to right:
Gabriel, myself, Mark, Charis, Shannon, Jagatheswari, Wei Liang, Zhen He and
Naz. One of the interns, another Mark, missed out on this photo though.
My farewell would not be complete without paying
tribute to MOM’s frontline officers. What struck me most was their
professionalism and positive attitude amidst the tough conditions which they
operate in on a daily basis. I’m glad to say that I am not alone in feeling
this way. Many of my fellow interns had shared stories of how impressed they
were with MOM officers. Below, I share a narration by my fellow interns, Charis
and Shannon.
“It was very
heartening to sit in for an inquiry session presided over by Ms Chay Jwee Yen
from LRWD. The case involved a 17-year-old girl who did not receive her salary
during her work in a yoghurt shop. During the session, the girl said she ate
one meal a day during her work because she does not have enough money, and
would only buy the packaged food from 7/11 for lunch because anything else is
too expensive.
At the end
of the inquiry session, Ms Chay called the girl over and asked her if she was studying
or working. The girl replied that she intended to get a private diploma. Ms
Chay told her to make sure that the private diploma is recognised at the place
she wants to work in future, because e.g. civil service doesn’t recognise all
private diplomas. The girl said she’s trying to find out if the private O’s
that she intends to take will allow her to get into a polytechnic. Ms Chay
encouraged her to do her research so that she will not waste her money and
time, especially since the girl had already said during the session that she
was tight on money. Ms Chay said all of these in a stern tone, like that of a
mother rebuking her daughter.
During the
short debrief I had with Ms Chay, I thanked her for the way she talked to the
parties involved, especially for the advice she gave to the girl even though
that wasn’t required of her. I thought her advice testified to a very kind
heart. She encouraged me to imagine if the girl was my sister, and asked me to
think, “how would you treat her?” She said you’re going to be a lawyer; your
family background might be such that you don’t know many such people. The cases
that come for inquiry mostly involve low-paid workers, and what she can do is
to try to help them break out of the poverty cycle. She explained that since
the girl is out of school, she might not be in contact with her teachers and so
might not know how to chart her education
pathway. She said that if we can, we should give them the advice they need to
guide them to break out of the poverty cycle. I thought it was beautiful that
there was so much compassion contained in a single piece of advice.
“Go and help
people,” she said. She asked what my parents were doing, are they both lawyers?
I said my mom is a teacher and my dad has just retired and when pressed, that
he used to work with the church. She said, “So they’re helping people lah? Okay
what’s most important is to help people ah. Go and help people.” I laughed and
told her I would try my best, and thanked her for her reminder. I distinctly
remember feeling a very simple (yet overflowing!) joy in my heart as I walked
out of the room, with the words “go and help people” in my head (actually I
think she was still saying “go and help people”). I shared with quite a few
friends the heart-warming joy I felt from witnessing so much heart in such an
unexpected time and place. This moment stands out as one of my most memorable
experiences in MOM ”
- Charis
“I was
impressed with the service oriented attitude displayed by Lisdiawaty of CRD.
When a customer approached her with queries on the employer EOP, she carefully
explained the whole process to the employer. At the end of it, she made sure
the message was understood. She didn’t stop there though. She went the extra
mile by going through the EOP process with the customer at the E-Kiosk.”
- Shannon
Well, that’s it from me. Goodbye MOM.
And thank you also for opening your doors, and
other doors in my mind.
