A $27 million one-off top up to the Covid-19 Driver Relief Fund (CDRF) will be provided by the government for taxi and Private Hire Car (PHC) drivers, to help tide them through the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert).
Drivers who are eligible will receive an extra $10 top up per day through the CDRF from 16 May to the end of June.
Which means that drivers will not receive $25 per day.
All eligible Taxi and PHC drivers will receive the top up automatically through their operators, no application is needed.
The MRT broke down this morning (21 May) and commuters on the Circle Line were forced to wait on the platform, congregating in large groups due to the train delay.
SMRT then posted an update on Twitter at 5.21am, saying that there was a signal fault, asking commuters to add 15 minutes to their travel time.
Free regular bus services between Paya Lebar and Buona Vista were made available.
At about 5.41am, SMRT then updated on Twitter that due to the signal fault, commuters should add 30 m inutes of additional travel time.
Train services progressively returned to normal at 7.15am, and at 7.30am, all train services resumed to normal.
SMRT has sinced apologised for the incident.
Images source: @Once_Russ on Twitter and @MaiSoori_writer on Twitter
In an interview on 19 May, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that Singapore is a “long way off” from opening her borders to international traveller like before.
However, he explained that Singapore cannot afford to close its borders off to the world as well.
He added that this is because Singapore is a “small open country” that depends and relies on food and fuel from other countries.
He also added that Singapore could only close borders “to the extent that it can”, while taking precautions.
PM Lee also said that Singapore has various ways of enabling safe travel with other countries, acknowledging that while there were limits on the number of people allowed to travel, at least it keeps the channels open.
He said that this is not without risk but unavoidable.
He also touched on Travel Bubbles, and said that it was not easy to “make a match” to establish one with another country, as they would only want to create a travel bubble with other countries that were safer.
He also said that mutual understanding of each other’s situations was needed, as well as mutual confidence that we will be open with each other and keep things under control.
PM Lee also said that Singapore’s Travel Bubble agreement with Hong Kong “may be a while before it comes into effect.”
He then provided an overview of Singapore’s situation, saying that Singapore is far from out of the woods in its management of the Covid-19 situation.
FULL VIDEO LOADING…
Image and video source: Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore YouTube
Twelve Cupcakes co-founder Daniel Ong, 45-years-old, was fined $65,000 earlier today (21 May) for breaching employment laws while running the bakery chain.
He pleaded guilty to 10 charges under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, allowing the firm to underpay and/or fail to pay within a fixed time the salaries of 7 employees.
Another 14 charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
As the director of the company, he had failed to prevent the company from committing such acts and didn’t take any steps to ensure the employees received their fixed monthly salaries.
There were a few instances where workers went without their salaries for a period.
He has also not made any restitutions to the employees, who are owed a total of $98,000.
As Ong left the court, he allegedly told the photographers outside:
“F*** y’all.”
Image source: @daniel_ong_singapore on Instagram, @LydiaLamCNA on Twitter and Connected To India
