This is where you put your oral reports/news story on your assign topic. Linked your script and oral report to this post. You can host the audio clip in ODEO.com and attach the sound to this blog.
You can either use "Garage Band" to edit the audio story or you can download this very useful sound editor "Audacity" from here.
Seems that I’m having a problem posting the .m4a file so I’ll post the script first.
[Interview] In this pod cast, we will be exploring the issue of trust and over independence of some Foreign domestic workers in Singapore, as well as what some of their employers deal with. Today, we are pleased to have with us an employer; Mrs. Eileen Goh.
So Mrs Goh, may we know how long you have had your employee?
Mrs Goh: Roughly 10 years or so but she has returned home for a long break on several occasions.
Wow 10 years seems like a rather long time, and during that period of time did you and your maid foster a sort of trust between the two of you?
Mrs Goh: Initially, yes.
What do you mean by initially?
Mrs Goh: well, she was hard working and reliable when she first came here to work. So seeing this, I decided to give her more responsibilities as a house keeper. But eventually I found that she her performance is beginning to become worse.
Worse in what way?
Mrs Goh: At first she just started to use the house phone more often, but we ignored it as we thought she deserved some space with friends and family. Her sister works here as a nurse by the way. But anyway she eventually became worse when she started sneaking out without permission and that was when we decided to end her contract.
I see. But when in those 10 years did her actions become more and more obvious? Or when did you start to realise that she was beginning to take advantage of her privileges?
Mrs Goh: I can’t remember when exactly, but it was some time during the last two years when I began to consider sending her home.
Why did it take you two years to decide?
Mrs Goh: Well its hard to say, I guess it was because I kept on thinking that I should give her another chance.
Why did you consider giving her another chance?
Mrs Goh: I guess it was because of how long she had worked for me, and the trust I had put on her.
I see. Did her actions have any effect on your perspective on foreign domestic workers in Singapore?
Mrs Goh: Definitely. In one way or another it has caused me to think twice before putting too much responsibility in them. Infact its not just my perspective of maids, but other foreign workers as well. Now that we have heard your perspective of trust placed on FDWs, is there anything else you would like to say to the audience?
Mrs Goh: Well, in order for trust to work both parties must put in effort.
That said I will leave you with something to ponder on the responsibilities of both FDWs and their employers.
Domestic Workers serving a wrong purpose in local households
In many Singaporean households , domestic workers are hired to help out in areas such as cleanliness , food preparation , gardening and not forgetting , to look after the children. However , I believe the true meaning of these tasks have been wrongly perceived by employers. This applies mainly to the care provided to the children by the maid. Maids are taken up the main roles in the life of the children that are placed in their care instead of the parents being the main influence. This can be seen in many instances . Some of these instances which I have experienced first hand in some children are :
• Children running to the domestic worker when he / she falls or injures themselves instead of their parents who are standing only a few steps away • Children who are emotionally more attached to the domestic worker rather than their parents ( A switch of place between domestic worker and parent ) • Children who go to bed only when their domestic workers are there to put them to sleep • Some children insist to be fed only by their domestic worker and not by their parents
I believe that parents are to be blamed for this and they have to put in the extra effort to ensure that a domestic worker serves the right purpose and also that the parents fulfill their duties as a parent well. Today I have arranged for 2 very special guests to share their views on what is happening today in the world of domestic help and also to share their experiences on the switch of roles between parents and domestic workers.
Ms . Selene – Parent whose child is overly attached to the domestic worker
Sergent Hussein – A policeman who has been on duty during several calls of domestic violence and he has been exposed to cases where the child protects the maid from violence by the employer or the maid using her own body to shield the child from hurt caused by the parents
Good morning, today’s issue at hand is the dilemma faced by employers with foreign domestic workers. Now, many of us do have foreign domestic workers in our homes. They eat in our homes, they sleep in our homes, and they take care of our homes. But what is the line we draw in how we treat these people?
Do we treat them like family or as employees? Employers all over Singapore battle between these two choices everyday. There have been cases of both extremes. In the Life for Rent conference, we were introduced to two very different stories of two foreign domestic workers. One maid had a hellish experience in that her employers were literally her worst nightmare. Her employers abused her physically and mentally. They even went so far as to urinate on her head. The other story was totally different from the previous one. This maid fulfilled her ‘Singapore Dream’ so to speak. She’s managed to send all three of her children to university and is now an important figure in her church.
So, what were the key factors in these two stories that caused the stark difference? I think it was the employers’ decisions and the maids’ choices. Family or employee, where do we draw the line?
We went to the streets and conducted a few interviews to find out how Singaporeans are treating their maids in general. Most of our interviewees said that they were treated well. One interviewee even went so far as to say that her stay in Singapore was “fun”, and that her employees and other Singaporeans treated her “like a sister”. We did notice, though, that she had a positive attitude about her. Her likeability and infectious personality may be a factor as to why her employers treat her so well. However, some did mention that they heard of horror stories of maid abuse.
These foreign workers are victims of circumstance; many do not choose to come to a foreign country to work as a maid. One interviewee said she had no choice but to come to Singapore to work because she had six siblings. Her father had passed away some time ago so she had to take on some responsibilities in the household. Many of these foreign workers are highly educated individuals overqualified for the job. Nevertheless, some Singaporeans treat them like they are uneducated slaves for the meager amount of money they pay them every month. Even though a foreign domestic worker is paid, it doesn’t mean it gives employers the right to abuse her mentally, emotionally or physically.
We also asked how they were expecting to be treated and how they want to be treated. Most agree that they didn’t know what to expect as they had heard a mix of different kinds of stories from countrymen who’d worked here before. Some were good and some were bad. However, when asked how they wanted to be treated, almost all agreed that all they want is some respect.
These workers want respect, but how is respect defined for them? Everyone needs privacy; an employer should set out hours in a day when the maid is undisturbed. A space should also be set out for the maid so she’ll be able to have some breathing room. In addition, a domestic worker is not a robot; she needs to have her rest. Thus they would need off days where they’re allowed to go out for the whole day. They can then mingle with people from their own country and be more at ease around them. It’s important that we treat them as human beings with emotions. Occasional praise or even a ‘”thank you” would go a long way in ensuring a domestic help’s happiness with her work.
If we treat our foreign talents with respect, why can’t we do the same for our foreign domestic help? By raising our children, making our homes comfortable and ensuring there’re meals on the table, they contribute to our society as well. Why is it that some of us Singaporeans play dumb to their contributions? That may be because their contributions are hidden behind the confines of their employers’ homes.
On a typical weekend, it’s common to see many foreign domestic workers hanging around Lucky Plaza in Orchard road. It’s nice to see these women just hanging out and having fun. However some employees choose to not allow their maids this one day of rest. It is true that some maids do choose to not have off days but I think that the option should at least be given to them. To give these workers’ a choice of one day of freedom is a basic right that should be allowed to all maids. It’s a part of respecting these maids, which is what they want.
We do not need to treat them like family, as they are after all, employees. But because they live in such close proximity to us and take care of our lives, as a “thank you”, we should treat them with the respect they deserve and even with warmth.
Personally, I’ve not had a maid before. However, I have relatives who have employed maids and thus formulated some sort of opinions on them. I think they are very pitiful because they have to wake up as early as 5AM in the morning and only to retire at midnight. One of them had to look after 3 children between the ages of 2 to 8 and she had to shuffle between sending the youngest to and fro from childcare, looking after their welfare, cooking for them, cleaning the house, doing the laundry etc, all these while without a single bit of rest. If I were her I might have just given up. With a workload like this, is it necessary for us to be so stingy and give her 83 cents per hour? Although, I have no idea what her pay is like, she has been contributing diligently to the household. The youngest daughter has grown extremely attached to the maid and is usually at a loss when she goes back to her homeland.
I feel that well FDWs are helpful for situations like these; the kids should not develop such a strong bond that they become inseparable with them. It is important to remain a certain distance such that the kids (especially the younger ones) do not see them as an alternative for a motherly-figure when their real mothers are not around. Parents such learn to wean their kids off the maids so that they can be more independent and not rely on them all the time or become lazy and ignorant to basic household chores.
Also, as the conference has highlighted the unfortunate plight of FDWs, I believe that trust is a significant factor when employing maids. So I have an interview now with Bettina who mostly has had positive experiences with FDWs.
How long have you had your current maid?
Erm, about 5 years
Do you have previous maids?
Yupp
So why did you change your maid?
Various reasons, some wanted to go back home, some after their contract expired my parents didn’t want to renew, and one was sick, so she had to go back :)
Have you had any bad experience with your previous maids?
Erm, not like veryvery bad, but like perhaps just sometimes little things
Are you satisfied with your current maid?
Alright, there are both good and bad points I guess.
So, what are they good points and bad points?
Erm, one thing that’s really good, is that she’s honest like, we can leave money around and stuff around, and it wouldn’t go missing. She cooks well, and sometimes she’s nice
But some bad things are that sometimes I don’t like having someone else around the house, and like I guess since she’s been around for so long, sometimes she can get over familiar, like if you ask her to cook Maggie noodles, she’ll stare at you and slam the pots and pans around while cooking. And I guess coz the kitchen’s like her place, so if we use the kitchen, she won’t be very happy.
So your family trusts her a lot?
yupp
How often does your maid get a day off and how much is her pay like?
She gets every Sunday off, and I’m not sure how her pay is like, but I know that we increase her pay every year by quite a bit.
So, does your maid have a handphone?
Yupp, I think my family treats her quite well. Like, she eats before we do, and like when she’s grocery shopping, she can buy whatever she wants too. She sleeps around 9PM and wakes up around 7AM, unless like we really need her help for something. And when like we have a special occasion, and my mom buys things like steak or something for home, we buy for her too.
Do you sometimes feel that your maid has too many privileges?
Not really. I mean, we treat her really nicely, and we don’t mind, but when she like shows attitude, then we feel like, she’s got so many privileges, so she shouldn’t be like that.
Have you told her not to show attitude? Like how you sometimes feel displeasure with her?
Nope, I’ve never. But my mom once did tell her like if she’s unhappy about something she should tell up, but don’t show attitude. And she’ll be nicer for a few days, but sometimes she gets upset again. But we kinda understand coz I think sometimes its coz she just misses her family and all. And she’s the only one in the family who’s working now, coz her family members quit their work and she’s supporting them.
Do you think maids should be given better treatment, to treat them like one of us and accept her mood swings?
We do treat her like one of us, but mood swings-wise, its just like sometimes not fair I guess? Hehe.
Why do you think it is not fair?
Not really not fair, but like, in a way, we do treat her reallyreally nicely, like she gets to watch tv and all, but like in a way, we are paying her and stuff.
While Bettina’s case has been positive, I have another friend who had a maid that abused her employer’s trust. As a child, my friend was beaten constantly be her maid and even got locked in the cupboard. Since she was quite the naughty kid, her mother thought that she was lying when she complained to her about it. This had resulted in even more punishment even though she was telling the truth. Her maid has always put up a front when her mum is around and the mother has also unfortunately given her the permission to punish when she does something wrong. For minute things like not finishing her food or being noisy (as all kids are), she was being hit by a cane and got chased around the house by the maid.
Because of this experience, instead of distrusting maids, she has gone on to be skeptical of her mother. She realizes the sympathetic predicament that FDWs are in and well she obviously knows what her maid did was wrong, she bears little grudges and is more upset and disappointed of the fact that her mother would rather trust the maid than her own child. Whatever the maid has done have left a psychological scar and there are repercussions from this incident. Now she knows better than to voice her own thoughts and opinions and is rather reticent and secretive.
From a third person’s point of view, I feel that well the mother may be at fault as well, the maid’s role in her painful upbringing is paramount as she spent more time with her than her mum. It all stemmed from the maid’s action of abusing the employer’s trust and treating the kids in any manner she wanted. If she has refrained from doing so, the mother would not have seen her kid as a liar and my friend would not be so withdrawn and unresponsive. She now indulges in self-mutilation to get rid of the void her mother left.
I feel that the conference was rather biased because they only showed us the inadequate conditions they lived in and the difficulties they face when working as FDWs. It would help if they had not dramatized the unfortunate incidents and proceeded further on to inform us about the negative traits that some FDWs possess. Some cases are very well black and white, in terms of maid abuse or maids cheating on their employers, but what about matters that fall into the ‘grey’ area? Have we been too quick to judge and decide who’s right or wrong and neglected true victims, like in the case of my friend? I hope that in future we would not take maids too lightly as humans with simple ideas. But that doesn’t mean that we should treat them as lower-class people who are less educated and therefore unintelligent.
There should be equal treatment for FDWs and the government needs to enforce more laws for both the employers and the employees. I hope that solutions can be created soon to ease the burden FDWs and employers carry.
I personally have not had a maid before, however, I still have some opinions on domestic helpers here in Singapore. With the recent conference held about these helpers, it has sparked a few points of interest in my mind.
At the conference, there was a maid who was abused by her employers before and she was supposed to share her experience with the floor. However, she got too emotional and she could not even complete her story. However, I feel that this does not portray the whole story of the fates of domestic helpers here in Singapore.
What of the happy endings? What of those maids who find good families, those who also eventually formed a family here?
A childhood friend of mine had changed his maid three times in a decade. Out of these three maids, one ended a happy story, one got fired and the last is still working with them. I feel that even though it is a hard life for them working here abroad, there are still happy stories that do come out.
The one who ended a happy story was my friend’s first employed maid actually. She had worked with them for several years, almost coming to 7 years, and she finally told them one day that she was going to quit. Not because they ill treated her or anything but because she was getting married. No, she wasn’t dating secretly, her employers knew but they allowed her to do so because they felt that she was only being human to love and be loved. She left her employers and married a Malaysian and still keep in contact with her employers.
Another friend of mine has two maids. Now these two maids have been with the family ever since my friend was a child. So if you grew up with your maid, naturally you feel attached to them and her domestic helpers are more like a kin rather than an employee. The relationship has grown so well that they would think for each other. For example when her friends come over, the maids would try cooking little snacks for them as they feel that my friend’s friends as important as their own friends. Sometimes I would even catch my friend poking fun at the maids and they in turn most of the time poke back. It is a heart warming sight to see.
I feel that the side of domestic helper life portrayed in the conference is biased because good things that happen like these were not mentioned, think about it. Employers are also humans, even if a dog lived and served us as our pet for maybe 2-3 years, we would already treat it like family, least to say another human being! In Singapore, not all domestic helpers have a sad story to tell. Thank you.
Steph Pang T07 (Money of the FDWs: Where did it go?)
My family has a long history of hiring FDWs (foreign domestic workers), whereby we most probably had like 7 to 8 maids before and I think we are quite experienced in this area.
Now, our FDWs leave their homes, their families, their children to travel across the globe to work for somebody, for only one aim, which is to earn money and make sure their families lives’ are better. They have dreams of buying land, building houses and getting their children in better schools with the money they earn. It may seem little to us, but to these FDWs, they are considered as millionaires once they go back to their home countries. So for this dream, they had to do what they had to do; which is leave their homes and come over here to work for a number of years in order to get more money to realize that dream of theirs.
Well, my first maid, T, was here when I was like 6 or 7, I couldn’t remember. She came, a confident woman and earned my mother’s trust, and gradually as the years went by, her pay was increased by first 50dollars, 100dollars, 200 to 300dollars. Why, her total pay for a month on her last year working with us, which was also the 7th year we had her working with us, was 650 dollars, which is twice the amount of a newly hired maid.
Now, T was a very confident woman as mentioned. She is not shy at all and was always making new friends with people in our neighbourhood. Not that it’s a bad thing, but T would chat up other male foreign workers who were hired by the government to clear our drains or plant some plants around the neighbourhood.
There’s this one guy T got interested in. He was a drain clearer as they call it, and also from T’s hometown. The guy expressed interest in T, and they started dating on the days she got off from working at my house. T would dress up nicely and meeting him by the side of our house, and off they went, going somewhere together.
T changed, according to my mother, after she met the guy. She would come back and hog the phone, calling the guy day and night, and not doing much housework. On the days where she had to be at home, she’d call his family using our house phone and convey his messages for them and talk to them for hours, after talking to her family for hours. She was not as diligent as before and my mother noticed that, even though she denied it, there were footprints of male’s boots in our house and quite muddy as well. My mother knew, but just kept quiet for T has been with us for so long, and she respected that.
Things got worse when the guy asked T to marry him. She was of course, on cloud nine. She spent more time making long overseas calls, to his and her families, discussing their marriage, and I remembered times where my father would shake his head whenever the phone bill has arrived. We didn’t ask her to pay for it and her calls could go up to 100 or 200 per call, it being overseas. And not just one time a month she called; she called a dozen times. My mother knew that the guy cannot be trusted, and tried to talk T out of it but T was too happy to listen. She quit on her own accord and demanded her pay from my parents, and went home, with only marriage on her mind.
But, it’s not so happy after all. She called back after 3 months she went home to tell us that she has reached home and after talking to my mom for a while, she started crying. This was unexpected as she was a very confident lady and would not break down easily. Well, after talking to her for a while and consoling her, my mother found out that the guy she was supposed to marry actually cheated her out of her money. All her 7 years’ of hard work gone, with nothing left for her own children and old mother. Apparently, she went to meet him the day after she landed in her home country, and he insisted that she pay for the wedding, and went through all her belongings and took all her money away, after which he kicked her out of her house, slamming the door in her face. There was no marriage at all; it was all a lie to get her money.
Quite sad, isn’t it? All the hard work you’ve put in, all the waiting and all the time spent in another country working so hard, washing, cleaning… now all your efforts are wasted, and you’re left with nothing.
Another maid of mine, Y, came and worked for us for 2 years, and like T, she went home a millionaire. Y is a good person and very quiet and shy, and was good enough. She showed me pictures of her families and pictures of her house, which she wanted to redecorate and make it better for her family. She had 4 children, the oldest being 15 and the youngest 3 at that time, and a husband. She worked very hard at our place, with only to support her children to better schools and higher education and make their home a better place for them.
But things were not happy as well for Y. Her husband called a few times, while she was working here, and made her send money over to him. First it was their oldest son being in a hit-and-run accident and had to get admitted in the hospital, second it was her old sickly mother who needs medical attention and needed money for that and soon, he had no reason but just demanded it from her. She always put down the phone in tears, and pleaded with my mother to let her take her pay first and please help her send it back to her husband.
While, when she went home, she was all very happy at the idea of seeing her children after so long, and planning to build a better house for them. In her phone call back to us, she said that she spent two days to go home, and these two days she dreamt about so many things, better education, better clothes, better food…etc. But she went home in a shock! Once she reached home, all her fellow villagers crowded around her, demanding money from her, saying that her husband owe them money and had ran away. Not believing that at first, she lied to them, saying she have got no money, and ran inside her house. A bigger shock was in line for her, as she saw her house empty, with no more furniture and her eldest son, was lying on the floor, nearly dead.
According to her, her son had no food for about a week as there was no money for him to get food. His father has sold away all the furniture and gambled away the money she sent back. There was no hit-and-run accident; her mother was fine. Her three younger children were taken away by their father, her husband, and god knows where they are now. She said some told her that her husband, heavily in debt, sold his children away.
Now all the money Y had left had to go to his debtors, as they came knocking on her door every single day. All her dreams were shattered, and she was back to square one again.
Now what I learnt from such stories is that FDWs have not much knowledge about keeping their money safe. Their hard-earned money. They do not really know what is to have a bank account and what is investment, or even what is to have their money kept safely somewhere. Why, Y told me the safest place she could think of putting her money was in her shoe!
As a result, they are cheated by people whom they though loved them, they are cheated of their money. The money whereby they worked so hard for. All of that, was gone the minute they touched down in their home countries. Is that fair to the FDWs who worked for so long in some foreign country only to get cheated all of their money when they go back? Not only that, some illegal agencies also cheat them out of their money, not giving them the money when they got it from the employer and making them work for another decade of years before they can get only like half of what they had been given.
What I feel is that FDWs should be taught of their rights and also, should be taught to keep their money safe, away from the those greedy ones who had their eyes on their money only. Legal agencies or the government should educate them on money matters and teach them on how to keep their money safely like in a bank, instead of in a shoe or under a cabinet. Only then, can the FDWs’ hard-earned money be guranteed and be brought back home to realize their dreams.
here's my transcript for my interview with my friend's maid and her employer :)
jamie: hi christina, how long have you been staying in singapore? christina: 3 years
jamie: so, in your 3 years, how many employers have you worked for? christina: 2. i left the first one because she burnt me with hot iron.
jamie: oh no, that must have been terrible. so, what other bad experiences did you have while working for the same employer? christina: I had to wake up early at 5 am to wash clothes and cook. I can only sleep at night after I finish all the work. I sleep at 1 or 2 am sometimes. Ma'am sometime don't let me go out on weekends. She always don't let me eat until at night.
jamie: oh man, how did you feel? christina: i feel very sad. i miss my family alot. i sometimes cry at night. mum return me to the agency after one year, she say i very lazy, actually i just sad.
jamie: how long have you worked for your second employer now? christina: 2 years, she very nice, she let me go Church on Sunday. the other mum don't let me go out on weekends, i stay at home cook and clean and look after baby. but mum now even buy me handphone, i can talk to my friend. last time i got no friend, now alot friend to talk to, i not lonely anymore, i don't cry already.
jamie: i'm glad you have found yourself a great employer christina. it's been nice chatting with you. christina: thank you, it's nice talk to you too.
*****
jamie: hi mr mohammad, i heard that you've had your maid christina for the past 2 years. can you share with me abit more about your relationship with your maid? mr mohammad: yes that's right. christina is very different from all the previous maids i've had so far. there were many others who came and went because they were lazy and even stole from me. i was very disappointed with them, but christina wasn't the same as the rest. she was very hardworking and tried her best in all that she did. i don't understand how her previous employer could say that she was lazy.
jamie: in what ways is christina different from the rest of the maids? mr mohammad: christina takes pride in whatever she does and she doesn't do a slipshod work. in fact, i know that she puts in her 100%, and to me, that spirit of excellence makes me very proud of her. she also treasures every chance that i give to her, and she doesn't abuse the trust that i give her. she comes home an hour before her due time to cook for the family, i think that's really admirable.
jamie: i heard that you even bought for her a handphone, may i know what made you buy the handphone for her? mr mohammad: i just felt like blessing her, she's already part of the family, just like one of us. i want her to feel at home when she's in singapore. in fact she's not our maid, she's our helper.
jamie: wow you sound like a really awesome employer! have you encountered any problems with christina? mr mohammad: not so much of christina, but my friends have often warned me against trusting christina too much. they think that maids are not to be trusted, but i beg to differ. trust goes both ways. if you expect the best of your maid, you should give her your best as well. afterall, she is human too, not a slave.
jamie: thank you for your time mr mohammad, i appreciate your valuable comments. mr mohammad: thank you.
Hi. I uploaded the files to my own domain. .m4v video file: click here (right click, save as) Hi and welcome to my radio show. The topic today is on errant foreign domestic workers, or FDWs.
I’ll be talking about errant maids because this issue hits closer to home, because I’ve actually been a victim of a maid’s abuse myself.
When I was a baby, just a few months old, I fell ill. My mother applied ointment on my body and when she turned me around to apply the oil on my back, she saw red gashes and marks. Turns out, my maid had been caning me while my mother was away at work. My mother sent her back to the agency immediately. I never found out why the maid did what she did, but I don’t think that there’s a valid reason for hitting a harmless baby.
There have been other cases where maids have stolen from my family, and every time my mother found out, she sent them back home. I guess these maids have their reasons for stealing, maybe they desperately needed the money, but stealing is a crime and we cannot condone their actions. I felt that my mother was kind enough not to report the maids to the police and she didn’t even ask for the stolen items back.
Our family treated our maids well. I can’t think of a reason why they would risk their jobs to steal from us.
Although I think maids should be treated fairly, I feel that if we give them too much freedom, they will definitely stray and may take advantage of their situation. I know of cases where maids bring their boyfriends back home and even of cases where maids have affairs with their employers. Some of them are married and have kids of their own. I feel that it is completely unethical and selfish of them because they’re harming the people involved, their spouses and children back at home and their employer’s partner and children.
Following is an interview I had with a victim of maid abuse… (interview here)
I had a friend who was affected by an affair between her maid and her father. She declined to do an interview, but allowed me to show an extract of her story.
During the past year, I found out that my parents’ marriage was actually very unstable. They stayed married because of my brother and me, but it was apparent that they were unhappy. Then, after 11 years of working with us, my maid got more and more complacent. My mother came home to find her lying on my bed, reading the newspaper, and she went out for long periods of time. My mother then found out that my maid was having an affair with a man. That man was my dad. My mother sent her back home, and trouble between my parents got worse. My dad would go out and come home drunk everyday. After a month, my mother found out that my maid was back in Singapore and that my dad was paying for her handphone bills. My dad had flown her back from the Philippines.
She is probably still in Singapore, my dad still goes out to drink every night and visits her about once a week. I cry about it sometimes, but there’s nothing I can do. My parents are not divorced. They just want to live as if nothing as happened. But I can’t do it. I hate that woman.
After the many bad experiences with maids, my family has stopped hiring them altogether.
Thank you for tuning in to my radio. This is Vera, signing out.
I'm gonna use the topic on trust! and here's my audio..
The audio was done with 2 interviewees, the first one had a pleasant experience with FDWs while the second one not so. Here's the rough transcript, it's in point form because the audio is very informal and causal
This recording is going to touch on the topic of trust and I have with me here a friend who currently has a foreign domestic helper at home. So, could you kindly share with us what is your current scenario at home? Also, why do you need a FDW at home?
“Because mom doesn’t like to clean and cook Hasn’t cooked for 17 years Dad is too busy to cook. No one does household chores. Both parents working”
10 years? Your family must quite like her then?
“Yeah, I guess so………”
That’s good. Is she the first helper in your household? Or have you had other domestic helpers previously?
“The other one who did not let me watch tv….”
So I have with me another interviewee who isn’t not as fortunate as the previous one. What is your current scenario at home, why do u need a maid?
“-Does all the house work -Mom injured her leg -Dad too busy -Someone to look after brother”
How long as she been working for you
“2 years before and 1 year now, total 3 years.”
Any bad experiences?
“-She stole digital camera -Stole my clothes went out at night to a hotel to be photographed by males.”
Did your family lose trust in foreign maids?
“Yes and we sent her back.”
Were you scarred by the event and what did you family do after that?
“-Didn’t want to have any more maids. -It was only when my mom injured her leg -Previous maid who had good experiences with her family came back”
So after hearing my audio, the question to ask is, where do you draw the line of how much freedom to give your domestic helper, and how do you ensure both sides are happy and will not betray the trust that one has given the other?
Maids deserve better treatment not only in terms of decent salary but also in terms of greater respect from their employers?
Many of them have lost their honor and dignity by accepting low wages and succumbing to employers’ abuse and exploitation?
All these may be true to some extent, but think again, have we ever thought of how maids can abuse employers instead? Now, we have a 14 year-old female student to tell us her very first experience with a maid that her mother decided to hire because they were too busy with earning a living and had no time for the household chores.
“ I had a maid last year, who got sent back home because of her bad behavior. She always acted like she was innocent in front of my parents. When they weren’t at home, she would bring this guy home, which I think is her boyfriend. She didn’t want to let my parents know and she always threatened me not to tell my parents about it. Sometimes, she wouldn’t cook for me and she wouldn’t wash the dishes. She’s also very lazy. She didn’t like cooking when I was hungry. She watches more television than me. One day when my parents came home as my mom was not feeling well, they found my maid’s boyfriend in my room with my maid! My maid didn’t even say sorry but was still arrogant. Then she got sent back home the next day”.
Thank you Sharon, you have given us a clear example of what maids are capable of.
This is not just an opinion or how we judge foreign workers. It is a fact. There are many interviews to prove that such problems exist in Singapore, so many of which we are oblivious to.
Following this, we shall have a 19 year- old NUS student tell us what she faced when she had a maid with her, when she was young, quite a couple of years back. It was a pretty traumatic bully.
“ When I was in primary school, I used to have a maid. She was quite nice at the beginning, but after sometime, she started to be very cold towards me. I was very young, so I didn’t really bother about it. Until one day I came back from school, and my mom told her to wash my school shoes for me cause they were very dirty. Because it was only me and her at home, she scolded me for making my shoes so dirty and she actually hit me , and told me to just wash it myself. I was very young so I didn’t dare to say anything so I just quietly went to wash my shoe but after that incident, she continued being very cold and harsh towards me. She would actually say very mean things about me, like how I was so lazy and no one loves me. And when I was very young, it really hit me hard,, and it really affected me. When she hits me or scolds me, she asks me not to tell my parents bcause the truth is I was just a naughty girl, and if I told them that, I would get scolded. I actually listened to her, stupidly. She was only nice to me when she needed things to send back home. So, every time when she was nice, I thought she was going to change and she would be nicer towards to me, but after one day of being nice to me, she ends up being the same. Thankfully, after about three years being with us, she found another job in Hong Kong and moved there”.
We have very little knowledge how the maids treat their employers at home. In fact, the employers themselves may not know how the maids are treating them. Take for example a maid is unhappy with the employer but she doesn’t express her anger or how she feels. The employer asks the maid asks the maid to get a cup of coffee for him/her. The maid feels unhappy inside and results to spitting into the drink. At the end of the day, the employer would not have known of what the maid is capable of.
What we can conclude from this is that, foreign workers are not as ‘powerless’ as all of us think they are. The media has always been focusing on how some of them are deprived, or suffering. Although some of which are true, we also need to know that they are capable of more than what we think they know. So, instead of assuming that they are always victims of abuse, we need to raise awareness to how they are also able to resort to harming and abusing employers when they want to.
In the current situation, policies favour the employer over the Domestic worker. Where in a lot of agencies, the worker has to foot nearly the entire agency cost by herself and the employer paying little or none of the fee. Up to the extent that some employers only pay $1 of the cost, as mentioned by one of the key speakers at the Life for Rent conference.
Though it is true that the plight of FDWs in our society today is very real, there are also cases of maids abusing those under their care, like their employers’ children, which I myself have experienced firsthand and also falsely accusing employers of crimes and then getting them into trouble. Just like what Quan Rung said on the discussion board about her uncle who got sent to jail because of his maid who falsely accused him of abuse.
Some friends I spoke to regarding this issue agreed. One of them, who prefers to remain anonymous, even told me that one of his maids threatened to poison him and his siblings if they annoyed her. The Ethical Issues problem runs both ways, both the domestic worker and the employer could abuse the system if the legislation favours one group above the other. Instead, I believe that policies, both current and those to be introduced in the future, should be balanced, and have both the welfare of the employer and employee alike in mind.
Such as the introduction of policies like compulsory day-offs, for domestic workers to perform their religious duties, or simply to relax with friends (unless the domestic worker freely chooses not to take them.) And also equal division of payment of the agency fee between the employer and domestic worker.
In the employer’s case however, steps should be taken to change attitudes of some Singaporeans towards their maid, in some worst case scenarios, some domestic workers are treated not as human beings, but like animals, by some employers. This attitude is evidenced in the speech of some maid employers. Some Singaporeans refer to their employment of maids as, “owning maids” rather than “employ maids”. And also employers of maids should take steps to include maids as part of the family and not ostracise them and treat them as strangers.
Such changes in attitudes toward domestic workers would do a great deal in improving the bonds between the FDW and the employer. Which will lead to less maid abuse cases and also less cases of maids falsely accusing their employers of crimes they did not commit. When I spoke to another friend, James, he agreed with me on this saying that such steps to improving relations between the FDW and employer have been long overdue. If these steps are taken, there will be a lot more happy workers in 49, 000-strong community of foreign domestic workers here in Singapore.
So, you think by giving your maids a regular off-day they would be more discipline just because they do not have to sneak out anymore? Think again.
Sure, you have heard the cries of these foreign domestic workers that they are treated as prisoners more than a helper, but have you heard the employers side of the story? Why do they have to restrict these maids and not give them off-days? Don't all humans deserve freedom?
Today, I will be interviewing Ms. Jruna and Mdm. Ng about their views on this issue.
So Jruna, do you feel that maids should be given regular off-days?
"No, I don't think they should have regular off-days because I think it is just a waste of time. They come all the way here to Singapore to work and earn for a living and not to come here and enjoy life. Furthermore, if they were to go out they will be tempted to buy things which they fancy, not forgetting the money spent on the food that they eat and the transport that they may take. All these will defeat the purpose of them coming here to work and may in turn waste money which they can actually save up. And when they go out, they will make friends and would like to keep in touch therefore they would be even more tempted to buy gadgets such as handphones... and this was the reason why my dad disallows my current maid to have a handphone as my previous maid kept her handphone bills from my dad and caused my dad to be in a debt of about 1000 dollars."
However, Mdm.Ng disagrees.
"Basically, maids are human beings like us. They need freedom. But to give them freedom is just.. they have to earn our trust. On the other hand, if we keep them, they are like a bird in the cage. They have no freedom, they are cope up in house. they are not expose. They do not know what is happening, they might imagine things. In order to give the maid freedom, really is rapport building. I mean when we first have maids, we have to train them guide them, we have to set our expectations and after sometime maybe after one or two months when we find that they are trust worthy. We can let go a little , we can give them a little bit of freedom. And as time goes by after working for us for perhaps a year or so, we can trust them more fully. And really time off is really their time off. Every human beings need time to relax, rejuvenate and refresh themselves. So maids are also human beings. So basically, I feel if i were to say maids shouldn't have freedom, I'm not being very humane. But on the other hand, it really depends on your maid. So it cannot be a very general statement. like maids should have freedom, or maids shouldn't have freedom. because there are really all kinds of maids and some like to lie or they cover up things or they don't trust you. It takes two hands to clap . If they dont trust you, they don't let you know things and then you don't give them the freedomn things can become worst."
I see. But I'm sure you have heard of maids sneaking out because employers are not giving them their off-days. So, do you think that by being less strict they would be more discipline?
"From the very start, when the maid steps into our household, we have to establish rapport we have to understand the maid..really understand her and tell her, 'Hey, you're here to help me maybe to earn money, possibly to earn money for your family back home. I need your help so that I can spend some time doing some other things that I like. So, it's a win-win situation if we understand each other very well.' Basically, yes I've heard of many maids are sneaking out, meeting their boyfriends or bringing people back. I guess it also boils down to relationship building. If the trust is there, if the maids understand what they're here for, and then of course at the very start for the first few months, you might want to spot check just to ensure that, 'Hey your maid is trustworthy.' But basically, I don't think we want to discipline them because they are human beings."
Thank you, Ms. Jruna and Mdm. Ng. Well, the main objective for the maids to come to a foreign country is of course to earn money. But all humans deserve freedom and maids are no exception, they are helpers and not slaves. It is also essential for trust to be built up between the employee and the employer. I feel that as long as these maids know their limits and be sure not to cross their line, off-days should be given. This is Geraldine on Newsradio 999 signing out.
Hi, this is Annabelle. For my radio story, I’m going to follow up on my group’s topic about trusting your domestic helper. Ever since my older siblings were born, my parents have hired maids to assist in taking care of the housework and watching over my siblings while they were at work. So naturally when I was born, I always had someone around to take care of me. Till now I’ve never been without a maid in the house. Over the years, we’ve had several changes, usually after each of them finishes their contract.
I have heard stories about other domestic helpers who steal from their employers, abused their employer’s children, sneak out during the day to go out with their friends, and stories about domestic helpers that just don’t do any housework if their employers are not in. My family, however, has never had any major problems with our domestic helpers. They’re always nice to us and do whatever they can to keep the house clean and do their chores. Wait! Come to think of it, we did have an incident way before I was born. My dad told me the story about one of our maids going out during the day when no one was at home. He came home to an empty house and caught her outside. She told my dad that it was the only time and she never done it before. Like it so happens that the very day she decided to go out, my dad caught her.
So anyways, here’s an interview with one of my friends, who currently has a domestic helper whom she’s not very happy with. Here’s her story:
1. How do you find your maid in general? Erm… My maid is quite nice to my brother and she’s okay to me but she can be very irresponsible and er she doesn’t really do her work properly. Ya.
2. Do you trust your maid? Erm… Sometimes la because like erm… she ratted on me before but usually she doesn’t and she helps me sneak in sometimes. Haha. Erm sometimes she lies to my parents about where she goes. And erm she goes out and meets her friends quite often and… and I dunno what she does. She goes clubbing at Orchard Towers, and and my parents don’t really know about that. And she has a boyfriend and stuff. Erm… when she first started working for us, she started stealing our money and stuff but I don’t think she does it so much now –a days.
3. Why do you think she behaves that way? I think she’s actually quite childish and… she’s as in… she’s like just a kid at heart and she just like wants to have fun and she’s as in she doesn’t realize that, that when she lies to my parents and they when they find out she actually gets into more trouble, than if she just tells them the truth.
4. Are your parents aware of her actions? Ya. She told my parents that she has a boyfriend and that erm… sometimes she tells them where she goes but not all the time. And sometimes she lies to my parents like that she’s going to buy something from like, 7-eleven but she goes to meet her boyfriend and she takes like 2-hours to buy something from 7-eleven, so it’s really stupid.
5. Why haven’t they done anything? Like take any measures to ensure that she doesn’t do all that? Erm… I don’t think my parents trust her a lot, but erm… so they keep having to reprimand her and scold her but I think that erm… like changing maid will be too troublesome so their just letting her finish her contract and erm… because if we get a new maid it’s very hard to erm… train them and everything and my brother’s very used to her and she’s quite good at playing with my brother because she’s very playful herself.
Thanks, Nicole.
And here’s another interview with my neighbour, Madam Lim, who has trusted her different maids to care for her family over the years as none of them has ever done any major misdoings.
6. How do you find your maid in general? Er… I find my maid quite good. She has been with me for 8 years and er… so far I do not have any problem with her.
7. Do you trust your maid? Er, yes. I do trust my maid generally and a she has proven herself and able to gain my trust.
8. When she’s alone at home, how can you trust that she will not take anything of yours? Er, so far erm… I have not lost anything and I trust that she has not been taking anything er, of mine. Er, so, I think that er, also depend on us, er, keep all our valuables and not to let them be around and also must monitor er… the things that we have.
9. If you find out that she has been stealing or going out without permission, what would you do? Well, if I find out that my maid has been stealing or going out without permission then I would confront her. Ers… Well, going out with-without permission, I think erm… we’ll counsel her and tell her not to do that but if he has- she has been caught stealing then I will not accept that behaviour and I will er… send her back to a… Philippines.
10. Have you ever had any bad past experiences with any of your maids? Erm, I once had a maid that er, made use of the phone to make er… international call. And the amount came up to be $3000. So er… that was er… really surprise, er and er, at the end we had to send her back to er, Philippines.
Thank you Madam Lim.
So I guess trust is very important when you let a stranger into your house to live with you for a few years. There will be times when she’s alone at home, and she is free to roam around the house and do anything she wants. Without installing any twenty-four hour surveillance to record her every move, we just have to hope that she doesn’t betray our trust.
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SITI SARAH ISMAIL S10036112E
TOPIC: MAID’S FREEDOM
The topic for my radio story is A Maid’s Freedom. Well I chose this topic because previously, in one of my threads on the discussion board, I discussed the silent cries of abused maids and the troubles they faced.
I felt that I should take it another step further to talk about what the troubles employer’s face. Now, when I say this, I mean, real trouble. Not the petty ones like miscommunication, maids being too sexy, too stupid, too slow, too forgetful, too kepo.
To start off here’s an excerpt of an interview I had with an employer who has had a few genuine unfortunate experiences with his maid.
(Voice clip)
In addition to that he also related another incident where another maid had stolen his late mother’s rings. Two of them and to my surprise this is what he did to the maid.
(Voice clip)
I guess many other employers would have immediately returned the maid to the agency. But like I said, giving another chance is also exemplary.
He also expressed anger and disappointment toward the maid as he did not think that the maid could act in such a manner. However he stressed that he did not bear grudges against other maids, instead he was more careful with the amount of freedom he gives to maids.
There are many other examples of misbehaviour by maids who have been entrusted with the responsibility of caring for the employer’s loved ones. I have heard of stories of maids hurting the elderly patient that they have been employed to care for and of maids abusing the employee’s children and threatening them. There’s also the highly publisized incident in which the maid was charged with arson in which her female employer and an innocent child died.
Yes, to the extent of causing harm and imparting negative values to the younger children under their care.
What makes maid do such things? Out of stress, revenge or simply unhappiness. Maybe they were manipulated to do so? Well there are so many reasons why such maids could have done such things.
Brings me back to the topic. I feel that freedom is a key to better serving maids. Not only freedom to move, but freedom to speak without fear. Then maybe, it would lead to a more pleasant working atmosphere for both employee and employer.
No one would want to feel caged up.
In addition I spoke to an employee of Noble Employment agency about the security bond of $5000 dollars that employer have to pay in the event that the maid runs away. I was informed that in the past five thousand dollars security deposit had to be given to MOM before you can take the maid. However, it has been relaxed to simply a payment of five thousand dollars should a maid be lost. However there is another option. Many expatriate families choose to pay more for an indemnity insurance in which in the even that a maid run away, the employer only needs to fork out $250 dollars.
When asked about freedom she says.
(Voice clip)
The question I ask is, when freedom is given, sometimes freedom is abused. When freedom is not given, freedom is demanded for. So, how much should be freedom given?
When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.
It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.
By Dorothy thompson
I feel that in the case of domestic workers, restricted freedom should be given. I mean there should be slight restrictions in freedom given to a particular maid. That should apply to off days and even freedom of speech.
At one point or another we have all seen and heard from them. For some of us, we employ them, share with them our food, and allow them to sleep under our roofs. They are the foreign domestic workers (FDWs); they come from all over Asia, but primarily Indonesia and the Philippines. But we do not realize, that as much as we should be grateful for their services, even here in Singapore, we treat them as if they are the lowest of the low. Or that is how Singapore views them.
If you do the math, we employ them for only slightly more than 60 or 80 cents per hour, when in Singapore, minimum wage is at least $3.50 per hour. How could the Singapore government allow this? The government makes medical checkups compulsory for foreign domestic workers every six months. If they get pregnant or have contracted HIV, they are immediately sent back to their home country. Failure for the employer to do so will result in the loss of the $5000 security bond. And similarly if the foreign domestic worker commits suicide or commits any illegal conduct.
However, the Singapore government has now clearly made its stand on the issue by addressing it with the raised quality of foreign domestic workers in Singapore. The government had already raised the minimum age requirement of these foreign workers by five years from 18 to 23 years old. As older FDWs are more mature to handle the elderly and children, it will reduce friction with their employers.
As we managed to grab an interview with Lilis, who had arrived in Singapore from Indonesia four years ago at the age of 19, she said that at that time, she was sent here on advise of friends who were already working in Singapore. Her friends told her that life in Singapore was better and she could make more money for her family consisting of her ailing mother and her six siblings. However, she did not realize that coming to Singapore would be a hard journey not only financially but also emotionally. Her first employers were very demanding and at her young age, she felt that she was almost ready to break down. Fortunately, after her contract ended she found a family that was willing to give her benefits such as off-days and even extra pay to support her family in Indonesia.
Perhaps it is a case that the government wishes to protect the young girls that come to Singapore to find work. But how long will these measures hold up. Even until today, girls under the guise of being older than they actually are, come into Singapore to work, and all these under the noses of the Singapore government.
A minimum of 8 years of education is required for a FDW to work here. To ensure that new FDWs can understand basic safety instructions and have some numeric and literacy skills to perform household tasks. This are but some measures the Ministry of Manpower have taken to not help the living conditions of FDWs in Singapore but for the employers. As clearly stated in a press release from the MOM, these changes are to raise the quality of FDWs. As if to say they were some form of object that could have its standards raised.
FDWs still undergo abuse by their employers, as the Employment Act does not apply to foreign domestic workers. It is clear that because of this loophole that employers are still free to do as they’re please to their FDWs. On 21st August 2004, Straits Times reported another case of abuse. A 31-year-old woman who bit her maid, burnt her and slashed her with two knives was jailed for 28 months by a district court. That is but some of the many horrible things that employers can do to their employed FDWs. Although a majority are not like that, you can safely say that most although whether intentional or not, dehumanize their FDWs through ways various of belittling. By both employer and even the maid agencies.
Lilis recounts her tale of being positioned by the large glass window panel of the agency’s. She and many others like her are put there for hours on end, doing various activities such as being seen reading or writing something on pieces of paper given out by the staff at the agency. Further more, she remembers papers of her bio-data being put into plastic, transparent file sheets being nicely placed in an orderly fashion on the windows to allow passersby to view them.
All these were done by the agency she was, at in a bid to “sell” the maids. As if they were objects that could be deliberated upon based on education level, what type of work they could do and other things. Does this remind you of picking out a new handphone at the telecom store?
Therefore there have been cries by NGOs for a policy change. If the government does not start to protect the rights of FDWs now, further dehumanization, abuse and death will be rising in Singapore.
This has been Brian Cheong for “Issues” on NewsRadio 93.8.
That is how much foreign domestic workers are paid in Singapore. They work non-stop, 24 hours, everyday. From cleaning your toilets to looking after your ailing grandmother, they are forced out of their comfort zone so that you and your family can have a better and more comfortable life.
However, to do all that they have to go through a series of complicated and costly procedures. The maid agencies are extremely unethical. In some instances, the poor foreign domestic worker has to pay up to 12 months of her salary in Singapore, which is equivalent to about 3000 Singapore dollars. During this period of time they are given a simple allowance for their daily necessities. In my report, I will be interviewing Hanis, an Indonesian foreign domestic worker who has worked here for 3 and a half years. We will be talking about her situation in Indonesia before she came to Singapore.
Hello Hanis, thank you for coming here. So how is your financial situation back home in Indonesia?
“In Indonesia, I cannot earn enough money for my family because of low paying jobs. I go fishing to feed my family and sometimes I sell the extra fish at the market to earn extra money. I can earn up to 60 – 100 Singapore dollars a month and I work hard. I have to support my 4 children, my mother and my ailing husband. My money earn in Indonesia is not enough to send my 4 children to study at school and support my mother and ailing husband”.
I understand that you have tried to look for a job in the Jakarta, the city. How was the experience like? Did you manage to find a job?
“Yes, it is very difficult because the people more educated and hence the jobs requires certain skills that I do not have. Many of the people there have completed secondary school, so their jobs better paying. It took me very long to go to Jakarta, about a few days. And it is very difficult to find look for a job in Jakarta. But I managed to find a job at the VCD shop”.
Who recommended you to take up a job in Singapore as a domestic worker?
“My friend in the village says that jobs in Singapore are very high paying only do housework. So she recommended me to go to the agency to sign up”.
And what was it like when you got to the agency? What did you have to do before you get to Singapore?
“The Chinese lady says that I have to pay them 9 months salary in Singapore, about $1800 to them. That money is a lot; I can buy a house in my village and send my children to school with that money. And then have 1 months of training to learn English and to learn how to do housework like cleaning windows and taking care of the elderly. The 1 month training is very tiring and I miss my family very much. And I also have to make passport and get visa, and fill up many forms”.
Even though most of these foreign domestic workers come from financially poor backgrounds, they are willing to pay up to 12 months of their salary to the agency. They are also more than willing to do your dirty laundry and clean your filthy toilets for only 83 cents per hour. I think that they deserve to be paid more than that for all the hardship they go through before and when they come to Singapore. This is Andre for NewsRadio 938 live. Thank you
Basically, when we think of foreign workers, maids and construction workers come to our minds. In Singapore, almost every other household has a domestic worker living with them. These maids leave their countries and their loved ones behind to work in our homes. In the 'Life for rent' conference, issues regarding maid abuse were raised. This is unacceptable in our modern society, where everybody is deemed to be educated and civilized. However, I felt that the conference was rather one-sided. There may be cases of maid abuse in Singapore, but there are still many other families who treat these domestic workers well. They are provided with proper food, clothing and lodging. Some are even treated as part of the family. However, maids these days have overtaken the role of the mother in many families. Under the influence of the modern society, women are increasingly taking up more active roles at work. This has led to them neglecting house-hold matters and an over-reliance on maids. In some cases, the maids even understand the children more than the mothers do. This situation, though abnormal, is becoming more and more rampant in recent years. The primary objective of hiring a domestic worker is to help out with housekeeping matters. This, as mentioned earlier, is definitely not the case nowadays as matters with regard to the children at home should always be dealt with by the parents. A more distinct line has to be drawn where the role and responsibility of the maid is concerned.
As for construction workers, there is little attention payed to them as compared to domestic workers. Some of them are deprived of rest in order to meet the datelines set by their bosses. We must however, bear in mind that they too are fellow human beings and thus are entitled to the basic human rights too. We must therefore not abuse them even though they might be working for us. Effective laws that restrict the number of hours they work daily should be enforced in lieu of human rights.
But theres a catch you are on call 24 hours with only one day off per month.
Oh, and you are only paid between 150 and 230 Singapore dollars.
Still interested? Then welcome to the world of foreign domestic workers in Singapore!
Last Saturday, the TWC-2, brought together all stakeholders for a conference on the welfare of foreign domestic workers.
TWC-2 member, Constance Singam says people only see the sensational and not the mundane problems of the domestic workers.
ccl-DW-4 "We only know about the extreme cases of abuse which comes to our attention when its reported int he papers. And something we want to do is to raise awareness that on the daily basis what we do about getting them to wash the car, making them work at all hours of the day, waking them up at 11 o'clock when somebody comes home late to feed, keeping their passports, and not paying them wages and keeping their wages so they have no control over their wages. All these are what we called quiet indignities."
Quiet indignities or acquired indignities.
It is more than employer acting beyond the limits of employment laws but also institutionalised insensitivity.
Chairperson of the group and Nominated MP, Braema Mathi.
ccl-DW-2 9 (edited) "we have labelled as acquired indignities whereby you scold the person 'you stupid! how many times have I got to tell you this' I shout at the person, I give her leftovers to eat because that is what she is worthy of, I do not buy her any new things, I do not even wish her happy birthday on her birthday... All these small things whereby we're taking away her humanness."
The first step to change may be to ensure that the domestic worker recruitment agencies treat their clients both the employers and the domestic workers with equal respect.
The treatment now is decidely lopsided, and it doesnt help that agents sometimes "sweeten" the deal for employers, says Braema.
ccl-DW-6 "If you have agencies that can display ads for zero fee, zero day off Indonesian maids etc then we have some recalcitrants out there that needs to come under some kind of governance. We acknowledge that the MOM is improving the situation but at the same time I think more needs to be done."
Sometimes, when a tragedy happens, the domestic workers find a common voice and organise to improve their working conditions.
Law-making on the Singapore side must also provide greater protection vis-a-vis tougher employment laws governing domestic workers.
Constance says stronger laws will help usher in changes.
ccl-DW-5 (edited) "Legislation is important because it is the fore-runner of attitudinal changes. And you need to force people to behave in such a way and then you begin to think."
But why don't domestic workers report physical abuse?
Debt bondage of course.
The domestic workers have to pay lots of money to get to Singapore and this made them captive to their employers.
Braema explains.
ccl-DW-9 "The domestic workers bearing the costs of what the agencies put out in her home country, the sending country and the receiving country and sometimes she also takes on the burden of the employers. And therefore she can go on for a period of sometimes 6 and some instances up to a year without any wages for herself. We are very close sometimes to considering do we have a subtext kind of slave work that is going on."
So what can be done?
The most crucial thing is to offer a helpline to embattled domestic workers says TWC-2 coordinator, Elaine Ho.
ccl-DW-91 "The different stakeholders in this issue, the agents, the foreign domestic workers and employers, they can come to this one-stop centre where we can provide certain services like mediation, we also direct them to support services for example if a maid is distress, we can direct them to the appropriate shelter. Its putting every thing to gether under one umbrella so that so that people don't have to go to the left, go to the right, you know, all over the place to look for an avenue that they can turn to."
The next is to develop a different model of employment.
Perhaps the foreign domestic worker sector can live in dormitories and be ferried to work at the employers.
This way, proper working hours will be met and physical abuses can be detected faster.
The plus side is that employees will be better matched to employers jobwise.
Something that may not become a reality so soon.
Braema says they can only try.
ccl-DW-93 "We know what we are up against but if we don't do it then my simple question is when are we going to do it? And what are we going to wait for? For another 18 year old with 200 injuries and for a neighbour to say 'I don't want to interfere'. That is what brought us together and the neighbours comment really made us feel that we cannot be like that."
Ultimately, the foreign domestic workers' lot will be elevated if Singaporeans remember two simple things, first they are employees, and second but the more important point, that they are Human beings.
