1/The government announced last night that all construction workers will be served a Stay-Home Notice (SHN). This means that they will not be allowed to leave their living quarters for 14 days. These are some of our concerns:

2/How will the workers eat?
Workers in private accommodation are seldom catered food. They usually purchase groceries or ready meals.

3/Unlike Sgreans under SHN, who usually live with family members who can obtain essentials for them, Construction WP and S Pass holders live with others who are also construction workers

4/The blanket Stay-Home Notice announcement reiterates previous statements of employers’ responsibilities: mentioning that employers must provide for the affected workers’ wellbeing, including food.

5/But in HOME’s outreach efforts over the past fortnight, we have already encountered several cases where these responsibilities were not complied with. Enforcement has slowed as MOM focuses on addressing contagion in the large dormitories.

6/Employers are already financially strapped and overburdened by the current circumstances.

7/ Giving them 1 Sunday’s notice to arrange all-meals catering for their workers (who may be residing in different locations) makes the workers highly susceptible to being forced to choose between breaching SHN directives or going hungry

8/We support decisive measures to protect all who share Singapore, including migrant workers, from further contagion. A blanket SHN for all construction workers makes them even more vulnerable than they already are, exacerbating their total dependence on their employers.

9/As we have suggested in previous statements, reducing the density of living quarters, stepping up on testing, and increasing the outreach and distribution of resources among workers who are not living in the dormitories, are the critical factors needed to curb the spread.

10/In light of migrant workers’ extremely limited access to support for their needs under SHN, HOME urges that this SHN be enforced with leniency and compassion. Our full statement can be read here: https://www.home.org.sg/statements/2020/4/19/latest-stay-home-notice-for-construction-workers-will-make-them-more-vulnerable