Singapore - Foreign workers in Singapore are complaining of salary arrears, with an increasing numbers of them out of work under the impact of economic downturn, according to a news report Monday.

Workers from China and Bangladesh used the Manpower Ministry to intervene and negotiate their salary disputes with employers, the Straits Times reported.

It said 171 of the Chinese had decided to go back to work, 53 were going back to China and two others were taking their claims to the Labour Court.

Some volunteers helping foreign workers said they were seeing more of them coming to seek help.

Volunteer groups such as Transient Workers Count Too and Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics have called on the Health and Manpower Ministries to collaborate and carry out checks on the companies' cash-flow status as well as hygiene in the cramped dormitories.

Singapore's construction and services sectors depends on hundreds of thousands foreign workers.//dpa