The following article was published by the Straits Times on 20 October 1998.
Maid agencies unaffected by Indonesia's ban
By Chin Soo Fang and Zuzanita Zakaria.
Straits Times, 20 October 1998
INDONESIA'S move to suspend processing applications for maids headed for Singapore could be a blessing in disguise for agencies here, which are facing an over-supply.
Agents said employers would have fewer maids to choose from, but otherwise, the three-month suspension from Oct 1 would have little effect.
Dr Chua Kim Seng, president of the 30-strong Association of Recruitment and Employment Agents, said: "It can ease the problem of oversupply as demand for maids has dipped by as much as 50 per cent due to the economic crisis.
"We already have a big pool of maids waiting at training centres."
Ms Fiona Ang, president of the 80-strong Foreign Maids Employment Agencies Association, said agencies could recruit maids from elsewhere.
The suspension is also not likely to affect its intended target - agencies which have slashed the fees they charge employers. This used to be up to S$1,000, but some agents have even offered zero-fee schemes.
If anything, more agencies are doing the same. For instance, an agency called Telford held a three-day promotion two weeks ago, doing away with its usual fee of S$388. Business tripled, it said.
Indonesia's Manpower Department and labour recruiters suspended processing applications for new maids after the appearance of such schemes.
Authorities there said such schemes resulted in maids being made to pay up to double what they would normally pay, to make up for what the employer previously forked out.
But Mr Thomas Khoo, a manager with Delijoy Employment Agency, the first with the S$1 maid scheme in April, said that while the employer pays less, the maid did not end up paying more.
He said he could charge S$1 because of his close connection with his Indonesian labour supplier.
Maids from his agency go without wages for four months, to pay their share of the cost of coming here.
Other agencies take less every month, but over a longer period, or charge the employer such costs.
Getting the repayment settled early was good, he said, because in cases where the maid ran away or had to be sent back before the debt was settled, the agency could be saddled with a loss.
Mr Khoo said that his company would not change its policy in the light of the suspension. But some agencies said that it would not be lifted unless the low-fee schemes were stopped.
Mr Wong Poh Lin, president of the Local and Foreign Workers Employment Agents Association, said that making the maid bear the "lion's share of the cost of placement is unfair to the maid and should not be condoned". He said that the handful of agencies doing this should stop.
On why maid agencies and associations were pointing fingers at low-fee companies such as Delijoy, Mr Khoo said that his competitors were probably losing business to him.
As for how the maid is expected to fend for herself with no money in the first four months, he said: "We have an agreement with the employers that whatever the maids need, such as food and toiletries, they will all be provided."
Tuesday, October 20, 1998
We are not exploiting them - employers on $1 maid scheme
We are not exploiting them
Straits Times, 20 October 1998
EMPLOYERS ON THE S$1 MAID SCHEME
SEVERAL employers of S$1 maids said they were not exploiting their maids, only taking advantage of a bargain.
And six maids who came on the scheme said that they did not mind having no salary for four months. But several people also said they would not use an agency that offered a S$1 maid.
Madam Leong Yoke Yeng, a 40-year-old businesswoman who just hired an Indonesian maid from Delijoy last month, said: "For us employers, we have nothing much to lose if we send the maid back or when she runs away. My experience with maids is that for the first few months when they go without pay, they tend to be more hardworking.
"Slowly, as they accumulate their savings, many run away or simply become less interested in their work."
She said that she provided her maid toiletries and also bought her underwear as extras.
"Anyway, she doesn't really need money. Everything she needs she can get at home or I will pay."
Another employer, Television Corporation of Singapore actress Jin Yingji, in her 40s, said: "I give them some pocket money to buy their favourite things. And I pay for their stamps, envelopes, everything."
She added that she also rewards her two maids with tips of at least $10 when she wins at the mahjong table.
But teacher Lim Su Mei, 29, was among those who disagreed with the $1 maid scheme. She said: "I think it's disgusting. We're hiring a maid, not buying a slave.
"Employers shouldn't kid themselves by thinking that they are doing the maids a favour by giving them a job and home for a few years.
"As it is, times are so bad that they have to leave their families and children to come here to work, so the least we can do is to pay them a decent salary because we need their services."
One of the six maids here on the S$1 scheme, Ms Yuyun Juju, 28, said:
"I do not mind, because we have been told that we have to work for four months without any money to pay the agency back first.
"Anyway, life is difficult in the kampung. That is why I need this job."
Straits Times, 20 October 1998
EMPLOYERS ON THE S$1 MAID SCHEME
SEVERAL employers of S$1 maids said they were not exploiting their maids, only taking advantage of a bargain.
And six maids who came on the scheme said that they did not mind having no salary for four months. But several people also said they would not use an agency that offered a S$1 maid.
Madam Leong Yoke Yeng, a 40-year-old businesswoman who just hired an Indonesian maid from Delijoy last month, said: "For us employers, we have nothing much to lose if we send the maid back or when she runs away. My experience with maids is that for the first few months when they go without pay, they tend to be more hardworking.
"Slowly, as they accumulate their savings, many run away or simply become less interested in their work."
She said that she provided her maid toiletries and also bought her underwear as extras.
"Anyway, she doesn't really need money. Everything she needs she can get at home or I will pay."
Another employer, Television Corporation of Singapore actress Jin Yingji, in her 40s, said: "I give them some pocket money to buy their favourite things. And I pay for their stamps, envelopes, everything."
She added that she also rewards her two maids with tips of at least $10 when she wins at the mahjong table.
But teacher Lim Su Mei, 29, was among those who disagreed with the $1 maid scheme. She said: "I think it's disgusting. We're hiring a maid, not buying a slave.
"Employers shouldn't kid themselves by thinking that they are doing the maids a favour by giving them a job and home for a few years.
"As it is, times are so bad that they have to leave their families and children to come here to work, so the least we can do is to pay them a decent salary because we need their services."
One of the six maids here on the S$1 scheme, Ms Yuyun Juju, 28, said:
"I do not mind, because we have been told that we have to work for four months without any money to pay the agency back first.
"Anyway, life is difficult in the kampung. That is why I need this job."
Wednesday, October 14, 1998
Say a firm 'No!' to S$1 maid.
The following article was published in the Straits Times on 14 Oct 1998.
Say a firm 'No!' to S$1 maid
By Alan John.
14 October 1998
Straits Times
ONE dollar won't buy you a bowl of noodles at a food centre, but for that low, low price, you can get yourself a foreign maid.
If you look out for the "weekend special", which is how one maid agent described his offer, you pay nothing at all.
Some things do get worse, and the bargain basement tactics of some maid agents here rank among them.
One agency has been doing brisk business since advertising its S$1 maid, wiping out the competition and placing 200 Indonesian maids a month with employers.
Other agencies charge employers between S$500 and S$1,000 for an Indonesian maid.
It shows you how some businessmen will find opportunities in tough times and succeed in drawing the crowd.
Shows you, too, that there are many people out there who are only too happy to pay a buck for a maid and think nothing more of it.
They might well count this as yet another advantage of being here, not there. Times are so bad in Indonesia, women are lining up to be maids overseas.
Some are so desperate, they will say yes to a job even if it means working for months on end for virtually nothing at all, while their pay goes to their agents here and at home.
Some women start work with a debt of up to S$1,800 and, given a salary of S$230 a month, may go without wages for up to eight months while repaying their agents.
Now the Indonesian authorities have imposed a three-month ban on maids to Singapore, to protest the agents' huge deductions from the maids' wages.
Foreign maids and how they are treated remain a perennial issue and we are unlikely to agree on what makes for proper treatment of a maid.
The issue pops up every time a particularly nasty case of abuse reaches the courts, with an ensuing debate on whether most of us make good or bad employers.
There are regular calls for minimum pay and standard contracts which spell out terms and conditions, and list what is or isn't the maid's work.
It is hard to say how much of this could succeed even if we had it, because when a maid moves into her employer's home, the boss-employee relationship is like no other. There is simply no policing what happens behind closed doors.
The one-dollar maid gives us a glimpse of how desperate people are elsewhere, how easily the poor can be exploited, and how some of us will pretend not to see things for what they are.
Mind you, nobody is breaking the law here.
The last time The Straits Times reported the one-dollar maids on offer, in August this year, a reader urged the Government to do something about it.
The Manpower Ministry wrote to the Forum Page to say that the common practice is for the maid to pay for her air ticket, recruitment and any training she may have received from her agents.
The agent in the home country usually provides an advance to cover such costs, and the maid repays it after she finds work.
The Singapore agent helps his foreign counterpart by collecting the sum owed from the maid, out of her wages.
The ministry said that such deductions are not unlawful, and the amount to be deducted is also beyond its control as it is determined by the agent in the home country of the foreign domestic worker.
The ministry promised to monitor the situation.
The irony now is that even maid agents are criticising the one-dollar offers, saying it is the maid who suffers when competition descends to such an absurd level.
We should not look immediately to the Government to take action, because this is something anyone with a conscience can do something about himself.
You don't have to look at an ad for a one-dollar maid and say, hey, terrific!
You don't have to shrug it off either, saying, too bad but that's life. What can anyone say?
For starters, try: "Shame on you."
Or how about: "That's a disgusting thing to do."
Say it to the maid agents and say it to anyone you know who sees the one-dollar maid as just another special offer up for grabs.
Say it because we're talking about people here, not a great-value sofa or non-stick wok, fishballs or chicken drumsticks.
Say no, you will not take a maid for a buck and think it all right to have her toil in your home from morning to night seven days a week while her pay packet goes to the agents for months on end.
Say that you do not kid yourself that you are doing a greater good by providing her a job, shelter and food.
Some may think it a stupid thing to do, but say too, that if you want to have a foreign maid, you will feel better for doing the decent thing by paying your share to bring her here.
How we treat our maids must rank somewhere on the list of ways to make this a better place in the 21st century.
It must also figure on the list of ways to raise a better generation of Singaporeans.
And we don't need the Government to tell us this.
Say a firm 'No!' to S$1 maid
By Alan John.
14 October 1998
Straits Times
ONE dollar won't buy you a bowl of noodles at a food centre, but for that low, low price, you can get yourself a foreign maid.
If you look out for the "weekend special", which is how one maid agent described his offer, you pay nothing at all.
Some things do get worse, and the bargain basement tactics of some maid agents here rank among them.
One agency has been doing brisk business since advertising its S$1 maid, wiping out the competition and placing 200 Indonesian maids a month with employers.
Other agencies charge employers between S$500 and S$1,000 for an Indonesian maid.
It shows you how some businessmen will find opportunities in tough times and succeed in drawing the crowd.
Shows you, too, that there are many people out there who are only too happy to pay a buck for a maid and think nothing more of it.
They might well count this as yet another advantage of being here, not there. Times are so bad in Indonesia, women are lining up to be maids overseas.
Some are so desperate, they will say yes to a job even if it means working for months on end for virtually nothing at all, while their pay goes to their agents here and at home.
Some women start work with a debt of up to S$1,800 and, given a salary of S$230 a month, may go without wages for up to eight months while repaying their agents.
Now the Indonesian authorities have imposed a three-month ban on maids to Singapore, to protest the agents' huge deductions from the maids' wages.
Foreign maids and how they are treated remain a perennial issue and we are unlikely to agree on what makes for proper treatment of a maid.
The issue pops up every time a particularly nasty case of abuse reaches the courts, with an ensuing debate on whether most of us make good or bad employers.
There are regular calls for minimum pay and standard contracts which spell out terms and conditions, and list what is or isn't the maid's work.
It is hard to say how much of this could succeed even if we had it, because when a maid moves into her employer's home, the boss-employee relationship is like no other. There is simply no policing what happens behind closed doors.
The one-dollar maid gives us a glimpse of how desperate people are elsewhere, how easily the poor can be exploited, and how some of us will pretend not to see things for what they are.
Mind you, nobody is breaking the law here.
The last time The Straits Times reported the one-dollar maids on offer, in August this year, a reader urged the Government to do something about it.
The Manpower Ministry wrote to the Forum Page to say that the common practice is for the maid to pay for her air ticket, recruitment and any training she may have received from her agents.
The agent in the home country usually provides an advance to cover such costs, and the maid repays it after she finds work.
The Singapore agent helps his foreign counterpart by collecting the sum owed from the maid, out of her wages.
The ministry said that such deductions are not unlawful, and the amount to be deducted is also beyond its control as it is determined by the agent in the home country of the foreign domestic worker.
The ministry promised to monitor the situation.
The irony now is that even maid agents are criticising the one-dollar offers, saying it is the maid who suffers when competition descends to such an absurd level.
We should not look immediately to the Government to take action, because this is something anyone with a conscience can do something about himself.
You don't have to look at an ad for a one-dollar maid and say, hey, terrific!
You don't have to shrug it off either, saying, too bad but that's life. What can anyone say?
For starters, try: "Shame on you."
Or how about: "That's a disgusting thing to do."
Say it to the maid agents and say it to anyone you know who sees the one-dollar maid as just another special offer up for grabs.
Say it because we're talking about people here, not a great-value sofa or non-stick wok, fishballs or chicken drumsticks.
Say no, you will not take a maid for a buck and think it all right to have her toil in your home from morning to night seven days a week while her pay packet goes to the agents for months on end.
Say that you do not kid yourself that you are doing a greater good by providing her a job, shelter and food.
Some may think it a stupid thing to do, but say too, that if you want to have a foreign maid, you will feel better for doing the decent thing by paying your share to bring her here.
How we treat our maids must rank somewhere on the list of ways to make this a better place in the 21st century.
It must also figure on the list of ways to raise a better generation of Singaporeans.
And we don't need the Government to tell us this.
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