Foreign workers in Singapore said they were "not dissatisfied" with working conditions but faced challenges like salaries being not paid, local media reported.
The public hearing of the state-appointed Committee of Inquiry into the December riot was today told of some of the employers' practices that foreign workers faced in the prosperous city state.
Workers had to pay a security deposit of between 1,000 Singapore dollar and 5,000 Singapore dollar if they want their passports back temporarily from employers for purposes such as opening bank accounts, said Jennie Yeo, deputy executive secretary of the Building Construction and Timber Industries Employees' Union (BATU).
Foreign workers trying to get their disputed pay from employers had to pay 270 Singapore dollar for stamp duty in court to legally collect their salaries, she said.
Bernard Menon, executive director of Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC), told the committee that workers had to first approach the Ministry of Manpower to get their held back salaries.
Committee of Inquiry Chairman G Pannir Selvam, a retired judge, described this system as a "double whammy", as workers have to fork out money on top of not being paid.
BATU deputy executive secretary Yeo told the hearing that there was "no build-up of such dissatisfaction" that led to the riot on the night of December 8, 2013.
Most workers told BATU after the riot that they were "generally happy" here, even though she rated their living conditions "about five to six", on a scale of one to 10, she said.
Yeo also told the committee that many employers do not share a copy of the employment contracts with the workers and that the workers were rarely issued with pay-slips.
She agreed with Committee of Inquiry member and former president of the National Trade Union Congress president John De Payva that unionising the workers would help.
The riot, Singapore's worst in 40 years, was sparked by the death of an Indian national in a bus accident at Little India area, a precinct of Indian businesses, eateries and pubs where migrant workers from South Asia spend their day off.
Some 400 of the migrant workers rioted on the night of December 8, 2013, leaving 49 police and Home Team officers injured and damaging SGD 650,000 worth of properties. The CoI is hearing into all aspects of the riot.
