Operator charged over living conditions such as faulty urinals, damaged walls in foreign worker dormitory
Communal toilets at the dormitory contained a broken squatting pan, faulty urinals and a hole in a corroded ceiling, according to charge sheets.
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SINGAPORE: An operator has been charged over the conditions of a foreign worker dormitory in Sungei Kadut, which was found to have faulty urinals, holes in the walls and no shower curtains in a communal toilet.
KT&T Engineers and Constructors faces more than 20 charges under the Foreign Employee Dormitories Act for alleged failures to comply with its licensing conditions.
The company, which belongs to the KT&T Group of Companies, returned to court for a further mention of the case on Thursday (Jun 4).
According to the charges, KT&T Engineers and Constructors had a Class 3 Provisional Licence to run a foreign employee dormitory at 31 Sungei Kadut Avenue.
A Class 3 Provisional Licence allows operators to run dorms with 300 to 999 occupants, according to the Ministry of Manpower's website.
The company is accused of multiple failures related to the living conditions it provided in the dorm in January or February 2025.
These include: Failing to rectify multiple faulty urinals in a communal toilet, failing to rectify a broken squatting pan in a toilet, failing to rectify holes in damaged walls and failing to repair a hole in the corroded ceiling of a communal toilet.
According to charge sheets, there were broken floor tiles in a corridor, an exposed wiring cable left dangling from a ceiling, an exposed circuit box, a metal pole dangling from a ceiling, damaged lighting found dangling from the ceiling in the toilet of an isolation room and a broken cubicle partition in a toilet.
The company is also accused of failing to maintain a loose ceiling fan, failing to provide adequate electricity by failing to ensure a power socket was accessible in one of the rooms and failing to provide guardrails on multiple upper bunk beds.
This is an alleged breach of the licensing conditions because the company is required to provide beds of "sturdy material" that do not "compromise the resident's basic rest".
Charge sheets also detail a faulty ladder on a bunk bed, a metal cabinet with a defective lock that prevented the residents from having a lockable cabinet for their personal belongings, and a lack of shower curtains at a communal toilet. The company is also accused of failing to provide a mechanical fan in an isolation room.
According to the public hearing list, the company is represented by Mr Alvin Chang Jit Hua from M & A Law.
The case was adjourned to July for a further mention.
For each charge of failing to comply with conditions of the operating licence, an offender can be jailed for up to 12 months, fined up to S$50,000 (US$38,964), or both.
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