22.07.2011

Crane climber jailed for 5 weeks in Singapore

A 27 year old Chinese man who climbed up a 30 metre high tower crane and refused to come down until a pay dispute was settled, was jailed for five weeks for criminal trespass yesterday.

District judge Low Wee Ping said imposing only a fine on Yang Wei would be a signal to other workers to threaten their employers with acts not in accordance with the law.
Please register to see all images

Yang Wei, 27, was jailed for five weeks after he climbed to the top of a crane and threatened to stay there till his demands over a pay dispute were met.

The man had pleaded guilty last week to trespassing onto the Nakano construction site at Changi South Avenue 2. He had climbed to the top of a crane and came down nearly two hours later after he was handed the $5,000 which he claimed was his overtime pay, medical expenses and repatriation costs that were owed to him by his former employer Zhong Jiang International.

His defence argued that a fine would be appropriate punishment as his client broke the law while under 'overwhelming emotional stress' as Yang was facing an impending divorce with his wife in China and his mother was rendered semi-paralysed by a brain haemorrhage recently. The Chinese national could not wait for Manpower Ministry to resolve the dispute as he wanted to return to Beijing immediately.

In reply to the lawyer's arguments that Yang had conducted a 'peaceful protest' with no damage to property or disruption of work, deputy public prosecutor Grace Lim pointed out that police and civil defence resources have been 'wasted' dealing with the incident and asked for Yang to be jailed for eight weeks.