On July 26th 2025, a stretch of Tanjong Katong Road South caved in suddenly, swallowing up a vehicle and its passengers. The scene looked like something out of a movie, with dashcam footage showing the concrete road crumbling like a flimsy shell, buckling under some invisible weight as the car plunged into the depths below.
Sinkhole incidents have only occurred a handful of times in Singapore, with most of them being smaller than the most recent one. There was no protocol for a freak accident such as this, no manual that someone could flip through and then act upon. But the construction workers on site jumped into action immediately, redirecting the rest of traffic to prevent any more casualties, and used nylon ropes to haul the passenger out of her car before it filled with water. Amongst the seven men on site, they managed to remove the woman from the sinkhole safely between 3-5 minutes, before the SCDF even arrived.
Their quick thinking, calm demeanor, strength, and determination saved the woman’s life, as well as the others who happened to be driving along Tanjong Katong Road. As a reward for their heroic acts, each of the seven workers received a coin from the MOM as a token of appreciation.
While these tokens were gifted with the best of intentions, the act seemed indicative of the wider under-appreciation of construction workers in Singapore.
Migrant workers have endured much mistreatment in Singapore over the years, with some cases even resulting in fatalities. For migrant workers in the construction industry specifically, they face challenge after challenge that begin when they decide to leave their homelands to provide for their families. From exorbitant agency fees, wages as low as $250 a month, cramped living conditions, and a negative societal stigma, these workers constantly linger in the fringes of Singaporean society despite being major contributors to its economic growth. The image of construction workers being transported to job sites in the backs of lorries is one that has been discussed worldwide, symbolising the blurred lines between what Singapore considers to be human and a commodity.
With the swathe of issues that migrant workers already face in one of the most developed countries in Asia, a “token of appreciation” seems almost performative. It was only after a heroic act that Pitchai Udaiyappan Subbiah, Anbazhagan Velmurugan, Poomalai Saravanan, Ganesan Veerasekar, Bose Ajithkumar, Arumugam Chandirasekaran, Sathapillai Rajendran, and other construction workers were celebrated.
Yet, the moment of recognition passed quickly. The opportunity to use the temporary spotlight to address or tackle one of the many challenges that numerous workers face was foregone, substituted with an “appreciation coin” which seemed more like a hollow act than one that was truly appreciative to those who make up the backbone of our society.
As Singapore continues to grow and unveil ambitious construction plans that are meant to accommodate Singapore’s growing population, it is extremely important that we push for better working conditions for our migrant workers, and seek their opinions on how we can improve their lives as they improve ours.
Posted 06/08/2025
