Deborah Choo/
A typical day started at 5am. Hannah (not her real name) would do some household chores and feed the family’s many pets. Mid-mornings saw her shuttling between her employer’s fruit stall and his daughter-in-law’s photo shop in Clementi. In the afternoon, there would be more chores at the daughter-in-law’s house. In the evening, she had to clean and close up the fruit stall and photo shop before heading home to scrub the toilet and iron clothes. The two families’ four cars required washing once a week. A normal day ended at 2am. Hannah stuck it out for 11 months. And then she ran away.
It was a decision borne out of desperation. Hannah had previously written letters and made phone calls to the Ministry of Manpower but all they did was tell her her case was under review. On October 7, 2010, she had called the police. But after paying her a visit and speaking to her employer, they informed her that the matter was out of their jurisdiction.
“They told me that they could not help me because it wasn’t an abuse case. The police also told me that my employer had the right to send me back to my country,” said Hannah.
She packed her bags that night. The next morning, enroute to the fruit stall with her employer, Hannah dashed out of a train at Cityhall and made her way to a shelter run by the Humanitarian Organisation for Migrant Economics (HOME). She’s been living there since.
Hannah is a victim of what HOME”s President Bridget Tan describes as “psychological abuse”. There are no physical scars, yet the impact can be devastating. Victims complain of a host of problems including sleep deprivation, stress, self-esteem issues and physical and mental exhaustion. Hannah is also illegally deployed. Cases like Hannah’s have prompted migrant rights groups and the Human Rights Watch to call for foreign domestic workers to be covered under Singapore’s Employment Act. Doing so would help ensure that they are not overworked and compel employers to give them weekly rest days, maternity benefits and other labour protections. But it’s a plea authorities here seem unwilling to heed.
When TOC approached the Ministry of Manpower for comment, we were told to refer to a letter published on the Straits Times on September 21, 2010. The letter, written in response to feedback from Vincent Wijeysingha, Executive Director at NGO Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), explained that foreign domestic workers are not included in the Employment Act “due to the nature of their job”. It also said, “Protection for FDWs has gone beyond legislative measures. For instance, MOM maintains a dedicated helpline for distressed FDWs and actively educates employers on good FDW employment practices.”
MOM did not answer TOC’s request for statistics on the exact number of complaints it receives each year in relation to psychological abuse. The exact number of victims is hard to quantify. Unlike Hannah, many choose to suffer in silence. Quite apart from the relative lack of official interest in such cases, the women are also constrained by economic considerations. Most have paid hefty recruitment fees in order to secure work in Singapore. They live in fear of being sent home should they incur the displeasure of their employers.
For Hannah, these are uncertain times. It’s been six months since her escape and she is still waiting for MOM to complete its investigations into her case. She remains in Singapore on an Special Pass, which has to be renewed monthly. HOME is currently helping her to find a new job. Hannah hopes to stay on once the investigation ends. Despite her ordeal, she’s trying to be optimistic – hoping her next employer won’t be like her first.
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Modern SLAVERY period That is how we achieved our GDP.
A country that measures its progress based only on its GDP is likely to view a human being as just a cog in the economic machine as long as he or she serves ones self interest. The human being is objectified to meet the needs of one’s self interest and that is what is morally wrong with this country. Singaporeans use the flawed moral logic that we are doing these foreign labour a favour by providing them with employment while closing our eyes to exploitation just to serve our selfish interest and convenience. This is an area where the government can step in but refuses to. Why? Because churning out an economic figure takes precedence over the well-being of any individual. The logic ‘as long as it’s not my son or daughter’ is a sick one. Shame on us.
This is about foreign maids, don’t affect us Singaporeans. Why should we care? We already pay them a decent wage. What more do these parasites want? They just want to take advantage of our generosity.
Ordeal 31 May 2011
This is about foreign maids, don’t affect us Singaporeans. Why should we care? We already pay them a decent wage.
……………
indeed you are..so generous that you would rent out her services to your borthers/sisters family as well
wouldn’t you?
There are two sides to this matter. I believe and practise that maids be must treated well, paid well and respected, but they too must live up to our trust.
First, I do not condone what happened to the maid in the story. she should not be made to work at two places and if at all in exceptional circumstances, she should be compensated adequately. This is what we do. For example, if all of us are out or working, my maid will call my brother’s maid for help. We compensate the maid with a small allowance. My maid sleeps by 10am everyday. I have given my maids bonuses, advance salaries and various perks as much as possible. My maid can use my home phone anytime to call home.
But there are maids who are given the wrong impression in their home countries that working in Singapore is very easy and they come with the wrong expectations and leave disappointed because they just can’t cope.
Second, there are maids who truly scam the system. Once, I took in a transfer maid who ran away because “according to her”, she was only fed Maggie mee and sauce everyday. After employing her, she was in bed by 8pm and claimed that she is tired and insisted only in seeing traditional healers. After a while, her tummy pains became severe and fearing the worse, we took her to the doctor only to discover that she was nearly four months pregnant. The female doctor who examined her advised us privately that she does not trust the maid and told us to send her back. She had only worked for three weeks and was in Singapore for four and half months, her pregnancy apparently was not detected in the first medical checkup. But we decided to pay her passage and gave her extra allowance and money for ligation. This was her fifth child. She was 38 but lied in her passport that she was just 27. Some three months later, she called me to plead that she has given birth to a girl and wanted to come back to work. I took pity and employed her as an extra maid to help out in my house. Within a month, she was rude, wrote letters and told my friend who was staying with us to post them without our knowledge. She could not cooperate with our other maid too and made her do most chores. She confessed that she has sold her daughter because her husband refused to accept the child as his. Earlier on, she lied that she left her child with her relative. She asked me for an advance to help her and believing her I did give the money to be sent to Indonesia and got an earlful from my family. Finally, losing my wits I took her back to the agent and she begged me again and claimed that it was the agent who wanted to send her to my place. It was the last straw for me, I left her at the agent and lost quite an amount of my fees. Within four months, she was calling me again asking me to give her a chance. I hung up my phone.
The second case, this maid was 40 years but she claimed to be 27 years, don’t ask me why? She will only work five hours a day and insisted on sleeping at 7.30p.m and she gets up at 6.30 a.m. She too was sent back.
Third, my sister’s maid a married woman welcomed a Bangladeshi for sex in their bedroom.
Fourth, this Indian maid claimed that she came here to work as a nurse and that the agent cheated her and she too was packed off in three days.
Another who worked for two years, stole our new work clothes and photos.
Fifth, she will wash three plates for an hour and wasted water throughout the day and raked a utility bill $500 dollars.
I do not want to go on. At present, we have three maids in our three extended families. We are blessed that they are good and know their place and they enjoy our affection, trust and paid holidays and rest, but this too can change when they too want to return home once they have saved enough, which they must and we ought to respect them for that. We have to start the cycle again to look for reliable maids and truly it is a gamble. So, it is not only about the maids.
I believe in treating them well, but maid quality and attitude is truly left wanting. I have had maids who are gems and they leave after their second or third contract happy and well-resourced. Others are here to scam us. I have no problems giving them days off and I do. But I also had an experience once after this maid’s “outing”, I had various Bangladeshi guys calling my house for trysts. Sigh.
In my earlier, I forgot to mention. We get our brother’s maid to help carry or transfer my disabled mother when all of us are out or working.
All domestic maids better proceed to hong kong to work for better humanitarian working enviroment.
Ordeal
Do not want to feed your ego by saying much. Let’s say your employer make you work in two households, two business
places between 5am to next day two am, you would be a dead duck, dying from exhaustion, not matter how high the pay.
It’s never easy having a stranger in one’s house. My bugbear is that the govt is happy to collect the levies but appears to do buggerall when disputes happen. Where do the levies go and what do they use it for?
JR,
U have not been torture by a maid yet that’s way U can call this modern slavery.
Not every word said can be total truth OK. if this is really rue, you think MOM will not do something? MOM is always the first to punish employer here in singapore.
I have heard many maid giving this kind of story, ut the truth is always not the same.
MOM’s OFFICER HANDLING CASE N SUPERIOR MUST BE FINED ALSO, AS DONT KNOW THEIR JOB.
MAID WORKING IN SO MANY PLACES??????????????
EMPLOYER OF MAID SHOULD BE FINED FOR BREAKING RULES.
MAIDS CANT WORK IN SO MANY PLACES, ESP IN SHOPS.
MOM SLEEPING?
Like it or not, we were not born equal. Social hierarchy & status have been dominant since time immemorial. Foreign maids are beneath us, just like we are beneath our bosses at our workplaces. No use bitching about how unfair life is.
I don’t have a maid, but if I do, sorry, she is not fit to eat at the same table as me.
I personally feel so ashame about this issue. Some Singaporean are simply nuts!!
In addition, Police and MOM staff are completely useless…
@Ordeal….you better pray hard your karma is good and you will not be born the lowest of the low in the social hierarchy in your next life if that’s the case.
LUCY
Modern slavery includes cheap labor from all walks of life,maids are but only one of them.
Point in contention is imported CHEAP plus exploited LABOR that includes our elderly working as toilet attendants and hawker stall cleaners working for peanuts.
Not all employer of maids in Singapore are super rich people. TOC, you are listening too much of one side of the story. Not fair at all. You give the impression of Singaporean being bad employers. No justification.
Right now I am having a maid who hides in the toilet the whole day long and giving excuse of not knowing how to do house work and so forth. We had many maids before working happily for us with no problem but this one really a big headache. We are tolerating her to the max because we don’t know what to do. The option given to us now is not so rosy in returning the maid.
Please write story about our government taking a big levy hence depriving the maid a higher salary will you.
We do to others what others do unto us. It’s a reflection of the social ills in our society. First treat the root cause.
I don’t believe this fairy tale. It is clearly spelt out a maid can only work in one place for one employer. Is there is political agenda to
this fairy tale. I would like to meet up with the person in charge of
HOME.
We should treat maid as human beings that’s for sure but to paint
Singapore employers as all abusive is truly insulting.
I have worse experience than those encountered by Citizen.
There are exploitive Main Agents and maids. In fact many a times
employers are at their mercy and MOM would not intervene saying
it’s a commercial deal. Yes Mom take levy but do not want any
responsibility. Many a times Maid Agents are the culprits.
I had maids who refused to work on the very day they turn up and want immediate transfer. It’s a racket between some Agents n maids
and employers lose all agent fees , transfer fees, insurance etc plus
being black marked by MOM for changing maids! MOM only knows how to collect levy, put in rules for disciplining employers but no
rules to discipline errant Agents or maids.
It’s good that NGO like HOME help abused maids but don’t ever attempt ever so slightly to disparage overwhelming majority of
Singapore employers.
If you have political agenda make it clear.
All the problems for which PM Lee apologized have been posted as feedbacks to various forums and agencies for years.
But he claimed not undertanding the feedbacks or said that the grassroot organizations have failed to convey the feedbacks resulting in oversight.
Now let us take a look at the above-stated feedback. It has been rebutted straightaway as if it cannot happen.
There is a perpetual denial of feedbacks as typified in this case. Funny, you said you welcome feedback but when people gave feedbacks they get run down with all kinds of negative challenges.
There is No change. It seems a waste of time to expect feedbacks to be listened to.
I need a Singaporean maid, any applicant? Please contact TOC and get my phone number.
MOM is purely one taichi organisation.
Any job, whether blur collar, white collar, are related to manpower issues. There should be no exclusion!! Clearly MOM as an organisation is flawed and full of cans of worms…
I agree with Lucy. If it has been clearly established that a maid has worked in a few places, MOM will take action against the employer. I had a maid who ran away. I went to make a police report. The police officer on duty told me that mine is one in many many such cases. Most of the time, it is the maid trying to get a transfer but the agent is not willing to transfer her and she runs away. Out of 20 reports only one is true.
The story continues at the agent, the maid took a taxi to the agency with 10 dollar allowance I gave her to buy toiletries. The agent told me that it was my mistake. First, I should not have given her the allowance because they see it as easy money, second, I should not have selected such a maid from the biodata because such maids do not work. The agent just keeps such biodata and does not recommend these types of maids to anyone, but it is choosers beware type of strategy, my sister chose the maid, so it was our fault in the end. I told the agent off and said this is a scam. I also told off the maid. The agent then cautioned me, do not scold her, we will send her back to her country her agents there will know how to deal with her, after that she will never try this trick or just settle for a job back home.
I don’t want to go on. I can write a huge tome of maids’ tales. Not all maids are treated badly, the law in Singapore is very strict against employers, there is a special section under the law where employers will be charged if criminal neglience is suspected and proven. So, if the MOM is investigation and it is taking long, there are other contexts to the maid’s account. Singapore has one of the strictest laws on maid welfare and abuse. Not all Singaporeans are cruel or unfair, and not all maids are exploited. “And not all maids who cry foul are angels”. This was said by a judge to me. The maids know their rights and they are not ignorant. The Indonesian maids are subject to interviews at the embassy if we want to renew their contract and that renewal will set the employer back by a few hundred. It is fees to upkeep the nearly 100 or more runaway maids housed there waiting for employer compensation, so I was told. I would rather wait to know the truth. Meanwhile, we employers must be careful and at the same time be fair employers to our good maids.
Maid are paid well in SG and better than a lot of Singaporean too. Their nett pay is between SGD330 – SGD500 where as many Singaporean nett pay is going into negative territory.
Ordeal 31 May 2011
Foreign maids are beneath us,
I don’t have a maid, but if I do, sorry, she is not fit to eat at the same table as me.
i know who you are..what you are…
a typical indonesian chinese mployer…
you hav yet to bein surf a cup of kopi O being filtered from your wife soiled menustreual panties…
i would do that if i WERE your maid…
In the 1st place … Who the F*** ask them to come and work here ???
Their own and ours, medias/organizations like (TWC2) should have publicize widely about some of the working conditions here. Sadly to say .. they didn’t .. So when things get screwed, who’s paying for all the after effect s*hits ??? Of course the infamous santa claus .. (Singapore tax payers money).
How I wish the whole bunch of them just get the hell out of Singapore .. so that all the unemployed Singaporean aunties can be re-employed just like the 80′s and early 90′s.
@TWC2
Till today you still can’t get this things eliminated .. A bunch of incompetent and complacent idiots huh ???
Just wayang and drama just like the idiotic incumbent garment ???
=======================
LOL … “Uniquely Sinkapoore”
Sinkapooreans Ordeal :
Sinkapooreans has been abused, robbed, swindled cheated for decades by our our very own servants .. the idiotic incumbent garment. Pls solve this urgent National issues 1st .. thanks.
I rest my case.
but this one really a big headache. We are tolerating her to the max because we don’t know what to do. The option given to us now is not so rosy in returning the maid.
……………….
The story continues at the agent, the maid took a taxi to the agency with 10 dollar allowance I gave her to buy toiletries. The agent told me that it was my mistake. First, I should not have given her the allowance because they see it as easy money
…………
the above TWO scenerio is 101% truth..
i know simply because all this filipino maids are NAVIED and STUPID..alwa LISTENED to their GREEDY cousins for MORE
…………
for those who follwed my xperiences in cebu throughout the ears…
i am a simple bloke who only 1st to get a filipino companion for LIFE…
through my quests..i hav come across no less than FOUR cases/scenerio…
before i presnt them my ideas..i ALWAYS tell them the TRUTH..what lies ahead if WE two are compatibles and as usual…
i don’t talk only..i alway placed me PESOS where me mouth is..1 prize 1 time offer(a generus 1st so to speak) and out of this FOUR…nun of them were SUCCESSFOOL..alway comes out with the same xcuses/storylines…
always ASKIN for more pesos/funds…
and i always tell them in a LOUD tone..
did we or did we not agreed to YOUR terms(nt mine hor) and conditions? did i retract or even changed my agreements?
they can NEVER answered me back..
they only can says..aiyah mother/father sick..YOUR funds has been used to help my(filipino girl’s side) papa/mama for medical treatment or sometime even direct rentals payments…
i told them..ello ello.. when i come to cebu.. i wanna hav a good time/fling and i PAY the MARKET rates with GENEROUS tippin$…where on earth did i agreed to be your parent’s keeper?
so in the end..i alway SHOUT..NEXT..there are more than 3,000 filipino chio bus availiable @ the snap of me fingers…
~sigh~
Everyone know that you cannot use you maid in you shop, but many openly do. In fact I have seen MP’s shaking hands with store owners with together their illegal workers. Most of these are “grassroot members” who are provided some protection when a complain arises, as in the story narrated.
@ iPUSHleekingyouwheelschair
WHAT TOKING YOU ???? Just go and F*** spider lah … idiot !
@ Webmaster … can you tolerate that bunch of garbage ???
Pisstoff 31 May 2011
@ iPUSHleekingyouwheelschair
WHAT TOKING YOU ???? Just go and F*** spider lah … idiot !
@ Webmaster … can you tolerate that bunch of garbage ???
……………
do not SWORE! period…
webmaster..can you removed the sworer please for you all know..i SWORE the loudest..the longest..the most lethal as well…
Whether it’s boss abuse maid or maid abuse boss, the govt is the beneficiary of the monthly levy.
Hence, govt has the moral responsibility to solve the problem.
“Psychological abuse” is already happening in Singapore Workforce. An increased number of workers are taking medicines from IMH. It is a very draining process of human mind. The maid will fault herself even though she is RIGHT…. and I am very sure that she is RIGHT to run away, and seeking help from the authority.
The owner needs to be educated.
@ iPUSHleekingyouwheelschair
Quoted by iPUSHleekingyouwheelschair :
do not SWORE! period…
webmaster..can you removed the sworer please for you all know..i SWORE the loudest..the longest..the most lethal as well…
===========
Well .. try me bloke … You’ll Wish you’d never been born … bloke ! :)
“Psychological abuse” is also happening in TOC… : >
@Abuse
Just shuddup and get lost … Abuse aka iPUSHleekingyouwheelschair … do u need a further abuse that you go into a totally MADCAP PSYCHO WHACKO … SO JUST SHUDDUP BLOKE !
@ •Pisstoff
Proven case. Next to go to IMH.
“Psychological abuse” ; The workforces in singapore is no better than the maid, if not WORST.
@-xxx
xxx : Quoted : “Psychological abuse” ; The workforces in singapore is no better than the maid, if not WORST.
=============
I fully agree with you :)
======================
@abuse
Case proven : You can jolly well go to IMH … Don’t worry .. many Sinkies nurses/staffs there … because Ftrash totally refused to be in that garbage. You see .. only Sinkies are being offered garbage jobs … due to foreign idiots rejection of low class jobs. Got it ??? Good :)
Pre-Licensees and courses are required by owner that needs to have a maid. A yearly renewal is a must and quarterly feedback by the maid to MOM (not maid agency) is a must.
This is not the only case. There are many cases here where the employers have mistreated the migrant workers, the migrant workers have complained to the MOM but no further action was taken. This has been going for years.
There a couple of welfare non-profit organizations setup (a few in the year 2009) to help these migrants who were mistreated by their employers. One of these organization is HealthServe, here is the website:
http://www.healthserve.org.sg/
Even these welfare organization has brought this up to MON on behalf of these migrants, but they were that this is a very sensitive issue, with no further action taken by MOM.
I think we need to take Minister Gan (ex-minister for MOM) to task as to why he ignored such “injustice” by the employers!
it is sad how our govt treats FTs with such pomp- even more than ourown REAL TALENTS – but FURNISH less than JUST AND FAIR treatment to the FWs who are in turth,the FOREIGN LABOUR that RE DOING WORK THAT SINGAPOREANS CANNOT DO – for valid reasons – or do not want to do.
instead,this govt keeps PANDERING to teh whims and fancies of these False Talents who dare even Faked degrees and lie about their ‘areas of expert knowhow’?
compare THESE cheating snd lying FTs to the FWs – some of whom have similar degrees that the FTs have,truly – who work honestly for a ‘meagre salary’ as comapared to those FTs who merely TALK MORE than they KNOW(?) or do?
this got to change- this very INJUSTICE and IRRESPONSIBILITY!
many of us talk big here, sg allow to have maid, not in many western country, and many of us here also have maid and also abuse them, for sure u can see for yourself every morning the miad washing car everywhere!!!!
if u don’t have one u are nuts! coz life here is like heaven, a luxury, no need for toilet washing?
@ Problem Solution
Quoted by Problem Solution :
Pre-Licensees and courses are required by owner that needs to have a maid.
Netizen answer : Only idiots doesn’t know that MOM is corrupted and sleeping and earning big fat pay package every month.
Quoted by Problem Solution :
A yearly renewal is a must and quarterly feedback by the maid to MOM (not maid agency) is a must.
Netizen answer : Every quarterly comes the infamous carrots … all across the boards. Agree .. ?? No ?? Then How do justify the 60.1% idiotic blokes, who are so satisfied with the carrots that comes once in every 5 years ???
I rest my case.
The workforces are not maids, Singaporean are slaves..We are worst than a Maid. Nowhere to turn for HELP!!! MOM? Union? MP? the next moment you discover that it is better for a voluntary resign before ending in IMH…sop, sop, sop…
xxx@
soon u have that chance to be maid in other country maybe china, if u think u are slave here.while ft come here hungry and u angry? no job? or just want high pay and easy work?
No, I am my own boss after observing the work place enviroment, and after observing the stressing life in Singapore..
Where are so many silly comments here like @JR and @Enlightened
making baseless remarks. Linking an individual act to the country GDP is plain stupid!
The people that miss treat others are likely bitter, greedy and ungrateful.
Sounds exactly like the many people in this website, doesn’t it?
Bad Singaporeans@
do we look like idiot ? yes, u are right , we let out steam here, and want to look stupid. none of us here can back anything we say with fact!
xxx@
boss?
than u are out to exploit. no boss succeed if they are generous.life is a competition, if u can take it , find a ez way out , like driving taxi? or security guard, stress free…..
want to drive ferrari? work hard 1st
@ go nuts
YOU IDIOTIC STUPID IDIOT … Did you lost the ground or has you been sleeping all this while ???
My advised … GO NUTS AND DROP DEAD … IDIOTIC ASS***HOLE.
After working/studding hard … where is our jobs ??? Diploma and degree holders driving taxi and doing security job ????
JUST ONE SENTENCE : LNCCB … Got it … good :)