A Singaporean woman has taken to Facebook to share her infuriating ordeal of having to move to China on short notice after taking up a job offer via a Singapore company, not having the proper documentation done for her by the company that engaged her, and eventually, not getting paid at all.

Infuriating

Her story is all the more infuriating as she is a Malay woman who would obviously face a language barrier in China, but not much was done to help her along the way, according to her post.

Not only did the company in Singapore not take precautions to ensure she was protected and taken care of, it strung her along for several months without paying her a salary and repeatedly broke agreements, until she demanded compensation by going to the Small Claims Tribunal.

Although the story she shared ends on a positive note and talked about the issue as a major learning experience for her about the realities of working abroad and dealing with unscrupulous entities, the details are anything but.

She also said she is sharing her story as a cautionary tale for would-be freelancers and contract workers in Singapore, who need to learn how to take the necessary steps to protect themselves.

The following is a summary of what she wrote.

1. Going to China as an educator

Her story began in November 2017.

She was hired as a drama consultant by a company in Singapore. Her job is contract work, and she was to go to China to join a sister company to facilitate the English drama curriculum.

The arrangement was for her to enter China on a business visa. But she would first fly in on a tourist visa instead, as this was her first trip in. She was told she would be allowed to stay in China for 30 days, before flying back to Singapore to get the paper work for her business visa.

On Nov. 1, 2017, she was made to sign the contract, and on the same day, fly off to China. This to her was a red flag as she had just 12 hours to pack, with her flight information provided on the same day, but she chose to take the chance and went along.

She was then given two contracts to sign: A Singapore contract and a China contract.

Her salary was stated as S$3,000 per month. The China company was supposed to pay her -- when she received her working visa.

She pointed out the discrepancy as she was then only on tourist visa, but was assured by the Singapore company project manager the contracts were just a formality and things would work out.

2. First time in China and something amiss

On the 13th day of her stay in China, she got suspicious and checked and found out her tourist visa entitled her to only 15 days in the country.

She panicked. She demanded to fly back to Singapore, which she did on the 14th day.

She wrote in her post that she wondered what would have happened if she overstayed in China and couldn't communicate with immigration.

She requested for her salary from the China company, but was told they couldn't disburse it as it was the Singapore company who had to pay her before she got her business visa.

Another red flag.

3. Two-month wait back in Singapore

And when she returned, she waited two months before her Singapore company did the paperwork to process her business visa.

But she ended up doing the paperwork herself as it was faster and more efficient.

The Singapore company then got a travel agent here to expedite the process and she got her flight itinerary to go back to China.

4. Fake itinerary

On the day she was due to fly back to China, the airline check-in staff told her there was no booking made under her name.

It turned out that the flight itinerary was a fake one. It was submitted so that the China visa centre would approve of her business visa.

The Singapore company explained that there was some issue between it and the China company.

She then laid out two conditions for her to go back to China: She would get her own classroom to run her lesson there and the CEO of the company will settle her salary as she wasn't paid yet.

5. Fake agreement

She made it back to China and was given a dance studio as her classroom.

She personally paid for and brought over 24kg worth of teaching materials from Singapore.

While setting up for her drama class, the principal from the China company started scolding her in Mandarin, saying that she was not supposed to use the space as a classroom and the talk of her having a classroom was just a fake agreement that the Singapore and China company made up for her to agree to go back to China.

The Singapore company then placated her by saying the CEO will meet her in three days' time on Friday. She didn't have to do anything in the meantime.

On Friday, the meeting with the CEO got cancelled.

6. Savings depleted

Furious, she was looking to get the next plane back to Singapore. At that point in time, she had not been paid in two months and her savings were depleted from having to pay for rental and buying materials.

The project manager from the Singapore company told her to stay on for one week while the issues were sorted out.

She waited and continued teaching classes.

However, it was a demeaning period for her as the China company made her stand in front of the school every morning in cold weather just to greet the children and parents in English.

She was reassured that her salary would be paid. She just needed to stay another week in China without working, while they transferred her to another school there.

A week went by and she was sent back to Singapore. The other school in China could not afford to pay for a teacher.

7. CEO kept changing the meeting dates

Back in Singapore, all seven meetings scheduled on different dates to meet the Singapore company's board of directors were cancelled.

The excuses given were the same, that the CEO wasn't in Singapore.

At that point in time, four months had passed and she still wasn't paid.

8. Sought legal advice

She was alerted to Singapore Law Society’s pro bono services and sought free legal advice.

The lawyer advised her to file a claim in the Small Claims Tribunal against the Singapore company.

However, he said the Singapore company might want to get away on a technicality in her contract: It was stated that she is a “Contractor” and not an “Employee”.

9. Sought S$10,000 compensation

She filed a claim for S$10,000 against the Singapore company. That amount was the most a claimant could file for.

Her justification: The company owed her three months of salary worth S$9,000 and she asked for an additional S$1,000 as opportunity costs.

She had missed out on other employment opportunities in the four months she waited and shuttled to and fro from Singapore to China and back.

10. Company tried to settle with S$250

One night before the consultation in the State Courts, a human resource personnel from the Singapore company called her to settle for S$250.

She told the personnel to bugger off.

11. How she won S$1,000 compensation

During consultation, the referee told her the Small Claims Tribunal has no jurisdiction for compensation.

The HR manager from the Singapore company was smug about that.

But she brought up the issues with the Singapore company’s malpractices and unethical business transactions to the referee.

In response, the HR manager then agreed to pay her S$500 as compensation for the three months of non-payment of salary.

She said no, and told the referee she was not leaving with less than S$10,000.

The referee asked her on what grounds and she brought up the Singapore company's negligence in informing her about her 15-day tourist visa to China initially.

The HR manager then raised the compensation to S$700.

Again she said she was not leaving with less than S$10,000. The referee asked her on what grounds, and she said she left her stable full-time job and another promising job opportunity.

The HR manager than agreed to give her S$950 in compensation.

Again, she said no. She said in the post it felt like she was playing The Price Is Right.

Again, the referee asked her on what grounds she should be compensated S$10,000, and she turned to HR manager and said: “On grounds that it is illegal to send me to China to work on a tourist visa.”

There was silence in the room. So, she turned to the HR manager and said: “If you can’t settle with my request, we can always proceed to hearing.”

According to her, she had nothing to lose if the case proceeded to a hearing, as it would be disadvantageous for the Singapore company to do so, given how more details about their working relationship could be revealed.

[related_story]

Advice for others

The woman's post ends with practical advice for freelancers stuck in a similar predicament, as well as a warning to those who intend on embarking on the same kind of journey by working in a foreign country but do not have the prior experience of how it works.

She also wrote about the lack of protection for freelancers and contract workers in Singapore who are not classified as employees.

This is a pressing concern, as those who are not employees are usually unsure of their employment rights as contractors and have inadequate knowledge of measures to protect themselves.

You can read her full post here.

An exclusive deal for Mothership readers: