Ministry of Manpower: Special Pass Holders
Designers: Lim Li May, Eunice Er, Matthew Wong
When is a Special Pass Issued?
A Special Pass(SP) is issued when the Ministry of Manpower(MOM) assesses that a foreign worker has a legitimate reason to stay on in Singapore to resolve a dispute with the employer, or to obtain medical treatment and complete the work injury compensation process. This normally happens when an investigation has started due to certain issues (e.g. Workplace injuries, illegal activities, remuneration issues).
However, when the SP is issued, the foreign worker is not allowed to continue work because he/she has to assist in the investigation. Investigations can take anywhere between a few weeks to several months, resulting in workers who have no proper means of sustaining themselves during this period.
What is the TJS?
Temporary Job Scheme(TJS) is an opt-in scheme that aims to help these workers support themselves while on SPs. However, due to factors such as language barriers and tedious self-service processes, many SP holders do not opt for TJS, preferring to wait till the investigations have closed.
Project Brief
MOM has to find a way to engage the 60% of SP holders who do not take on TJS.
From interviews, we found two common themes:
1. Lack of understanding of the situation they were in.
2. Lack of trust towards MOM
Design Statement:
"How can we engage SP Holders to take on TJS?"
We came up with three solutions aimed at addressing the two problems mentioned earlier:
Communication Toolkit
Our research showed that during the first stamp renewal, SP holders did not understand most of what was communicated to them by MOM officers. With this toolkit, SP holders can indicate their understanding of what is being communicated to them. Additionally, the toolkit helps to alleviate pressure on language translators working at MOM who bridge the communication gap between MOM officers and SP holders.
