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Dilemma: Want to whistleblow but could get foreigner GF into trouble. What to do?
Career, Job, Edu Qn in SGContext: My girlfriend is Burmese, and like many people back home, left the country amidst the military coup and political instability. She enrolled in private diploma course in Singapore, did an internship and subsequently went on to work for the company in the F&B industry. We met while I did a gig job at the shop.
Her company is a small shop with a focus on selling traditional desserts, located somewhere in central Singapore. They expanded to a secondary outlet but it closed down less than a year due to poor sales. The original outlet also suffered from poor sales and the owner failed to renegotiate a new lease, resulting in a relocation to a new location, where my girlfriend is currently at. In between the lease expiry and the set-up of the new location, my girlfriend did not draw a salary for about 2 months but was held on as an employee because the boss said "don't worry I know going back to Myanmar is very difficult now". I was initially grateful for the gesture but things turned bad.
GF has been with the shop since the beginning, and you could say I am biased but she has been really diligent. On some days even when she was unwell, she refused to be on medical leave as it would be "bad for the company and difficult for colleagues". She gets one off day per week, which is common for F&B. What I am concerned about are her working hours.
Back at the original store, her shift is 1100-2300, with a 1-hour break. When she was selected to go to the second shop, her hours became 1000-2100, similarly with a 1-hour break. At the newest location, her work hours are 0700-2000, and while there's a 1-hour break on paper, she gets about 15-20 minutes to eat at most. That works out to be more than 72 hours per week. Her boss also recently informed that they will be unable to take an off day for 2 weeks as another Malaysian colleague will be on leave. I know this is a clear violation of so many MOM regulations, and I really want to confront the management on her behalf and write in to the relevant authorities, but I am really afraid of the backlash she might receive.
She has been applying for numerous jobs but was always met with "sorry no quota". As a Burmese, she requires a Work Permit (NTS) which means there must be a higher corresponding number of locals in the company before a Burmese van be hired. Additionally, there is a limit to the roles she can work, such as manufacturering, F&B and housekeeping.
Despite being with her shop for almost 3 years, her boss seems to favour 2 new Malaysian staff that was recently hired; giving them more authority and leeway compared to my GF and her other Burmese colleague. She is really very exhausted but looking for a new job is proving an uphill task and she is afraid to voice out to the current boss lest her work permit gets cancelled. An alternative would be to apply for a job via an agent, but I have been scrawling through the postings for the past few weeks and most of them are either similarly bad or worse off. Majority of the jobs posted provide a median salary of $1500 with either 1 or 2 off day the entire month. This is excluding a hefty agent fee of about $6000. Not sure how they exploit certain loopholes when it is clearly listed that workers on a WP should be paid a minimum wage of $2000.
Thank you for reading and any advice is greatly appreciated.
