SINGAPORE: The director of a company who instructed construction workers to hold up placards demanding outstanding payments from a subcontractor was fined by a court on Friday (Sep 26), along with her husband.
Rebecca Rubini Ravinthiran, a 33-year-old Singaporean, was fined S$8,500 (US$6,600), while her husband Vee Derrick Mahendran, 36, was fined S$4,500.
Ravinthiran pleaded guilty to three charges including organising a public assembly without a permit and breaching conditions of work permits by involving the foreign workers in illegal activities, with another 14 charges taken into consideration.
Her husband pleaded guilty to one charge each of abetting the organisation of a public assembly without a permit and breaching a condition of the foreign workers’ work permits. Another nine charges were considered in sentencing.
Ravinthiran was a director of Scorpio Builders and Apex Engineering at the time of the offences in 2024.
Scorpio Builders was a subcontractor to TLT Construction and Engineering, which was in turn a subcontractor to the main contractor, Rich Construction Company, for Housing and Development Board (HDB) estate worksites at Dakota Breeze and Parc Flora @ Tengah.
Ravinthiran’s companies provided manpower for services like painting and rooftop steel structure works for the two Build-To-Order HDB worksites.
TLT Construction allegedly owed outstanding payments to Scorpio Builders, the court heard.
When attempts to seek the payments failed, Ravinthiran came up with the idea to instigate her workers to hold placards at the worksites to garner the attention of TLT Construction.
On Oct 23, 2024, she directed two workers to collect cardboard pieces from a rubbish chute. Her husband then guided them to cut the cardboard into specific square shapes.
Ravinthiran then printed the following text and attached the print-outs to the cardboard: “RICH CONSTRUCTION (CHINA CONSTRUCTION)/TLT CONSTRUCTION PLEASE PAY OUTSTANDING AMOUNT”, “WHY DO THIS TO SMALL CONTRACTOR???”, “PLEASE PAY OUT MONEY $73,410++ & $77,000”, “PLEASE PAY OUR MONEY $69597++” AND “OUTSTANDING AMOUNT $69597++”.
On the morning of Oct 24 last year, Ravinthiran instructed a total of six workers to stand beside the entrance to the Dakota Breeze worksite without saying or shouting any slogans.
She handed four placards to four workers who held them up to demand that Scorpio Builders be paid the outstanding amount owed for its work to TLT Construction.
That same morning, Ravinthiran instructed another worker to distribute four placards to his colleagues at the Tengah worksite.
She asked him to instruct a total of nine workers to stand along the walkway outside the entrance of the worksite, without obstructing the walkway.
