Ambassadors help fellow foreign workers with work issues

He is a full-time construction worker and driver.

Mr Sonai Kalaiselvan, 27, still has another job.

He is an ambassador in the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) Foreign Worker (FW) ambassador programme.

His role: To help fellow foreign workers here with life and work-related issues.

The programme was started by MOM in November 2014.

Workers who join the programme attend workshops, where they gather more employment-related information and learn social norms and work safety so they can help fellow workers.

There are over 900 FW ambassadors and they work in various industries such as service and construction.

They are not paid for their work as ambassadors.

According to MOM, foreign workers were afraid of speaking to authorities about their problems and preferred to confide in friends.

Mr Kalaiselvan, who is from Madurai, India, and has been here for eight years, joined the programme last year after speaking to his friend, Mr Veluchamy Muniapparaj, who was already an ambassador.

GOOD CAUSE

He said: "I did not feel any hesitation or shyness when I joined. After all, it is for a good purpose."

The training he underwent at the workshop enabled him to help friends who faced issues at their workplace and did not know how to deal with them, he said.

"There is a way to approach every problem. Rather than create trouble, it is better to follow the correct procedure." Mr Sonai Kalaiselvan

Mr Kalaiselvan said: "There is a way to approach every problem.

"Rather than argue and create trouble, it is better to follow the correct procedure and meet the relevant authorities.

"That is what I help my friends with, as they might not be sure how to tackle the issues they face."

One of his friends recently had his salary delayed and Mr Kalaiselvan was able to help by advising him what to do and directing him to MOM.

Like him, Mr Muniapparaj, 30, an operations executive, was just happy to be able to help fellow workers.

One of the first ambassadors, he joined the programme after he faced a salary problem at work and MOM assisted him with it.

ISSUES

He realised that many of his fellow workers faced similar issues at work and wanted to help them.

Now, Mr Muniapparaj tries to recruit fellow workers to become ambassadors as well.He said: "It is better to have more ambassadors and spread the message as far as possible.

"That way, all the workers will know how to deal with the problems they face and will not have to feel scared or confused."