On March 13, 2013, officials from Office of Labour Affairs in Singapore and labour volunteers visited Thai workers at Kranji Lodge One on 12 Kranji Road, Singapore 739522. The Thai workers work for Vobis Enterprise Pte Ltd. The lodge is for foreign workers and can accommodate up to 12,000 people. At present, about 8,820 workers live there, most of them are from Bangladesh and India.
The lodge has 14 four-storey buildings and one two-storey office building. Workers from the same company are arranged to live in the same building. 12 workers are to share one room which has six bunk beds, private cabinets. Fans are installed in each room while a bathroom is situation in the middle of each floor. Cafeteria, kitchen, cooking equipment storage and a laundry room are all located on the ground floor. There are six gyms, 12 sepak takraw fields, four basketball fields, four badminton fields locating in between the buildings. The two-storey office building has retail shops, restaurants and a room for security officials located on the ground floor. A gym, multi-purpose meeting room, internet room, medical room and lounges are located upstairs for workers to use for free of charge.
The lodge is clean and secured. There is a park and a public outdoor sport field near the lodge. Workers are required to show their ID card and have their eyes scanned before they can enter and leave the building.
At present, there are 380 Thai workers living there. Their employers are responsible for the rental, water/electricity bills. Most of them work for Dragages Singapore Pte Ltd.
Officials from Office of Labour Affairs in Singapore gave the Thai workers handbooks for living in Singapore, sport gears, medicines, handbooks on danger benefits caused by working, handbooks on employment contract, handbooks on tax refund. They also encouraged workers to apply for a membership of the Fund for Job Seekers Working Abroad. The labour volunteers also gave the workers a blood pressure test and told those with high blood pressure to go to see a doctor.
