For US$3.50 an hour, migrant workers in Singapore queue overnight for barbecue pork
Migrant worker groups say the practice is exploitative and demeaning, but the workers say they don’t mind earning a quick buck
By Valerie Koh
It has been years since migrant worker groups in Singapore first raised concerns over employers getting their foreign workers to queue up — sometimes overnight — to buy bak kwa (barbecued pork) on their behalf, but with Chinese New Year just around the corner, the practice has emerged once again.
Hours before a popular bak kwa retailer opens its New Bridge Road outlet in Central Singapore for business, groups of migrant workers can be seen forming a line, some of them lying on makeshift beds of cardboard, others seated on stools found nearby.
Paid for the hours they spend in line, the workers told TODAY they were happy for the chance to make an extra buck. But migrant-worker rights groups say the practice exploits cheap labour and demeans the workers.
When TODAY visited the shop — known for its long, snaking lines when Chinese New Year rolls around — yesterday, a group of seven foreign workers from a land surveying firm were first in line.
The shutters came up only at 9am, but the Tamil Nadu natives said they started camping outside the shop at 11pm the night before. They bought 70kg of bak kwa.