New foreign maids to be told their rights
By Tan Tarn How and Theresa Tan.
5 January 2004
Straits Times
Employers also warned to expect tough treatment for abuse
NEW foreign maids will soon be required to attend a course informing them of their rights and what to do if their employers make demands that compromise their safety.
It is a move towards 'righting the relationship' between employer and maid, said Acting Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen yesterday.
To the maids, he said: 'Your employer cannot ask you to do unreasonable things and you need not comply.'
The maid should say no if she risks toppling out of the window when the employer wants her to hang out heavy laundry to dry, for example.
And if the employer insists, the maid will have on hand ministry telephone numbers to call.
Speaking to reporters after a community visit to the Zenghua area in Bukit Panjang, he dished out some tough talk to employers who think nothing of risking the safety of their maids.
'If you tell her to climb out of the window and she falls, I will take you to task because it is reckless abandonment.'
From January 2001 to June last year, 22 employers were jailed for abusing their maids and he has no qualms about jailing 'twice or three times the number' to stem maid abuse.
Ninety-nine maids fell to their deaths from high-rise buildings between 1999 and June last year.
Dr Ng also referred to an initiative announced in August 2002, to get first-time employers to attend an orientation course on the management of maids and the penalties for maid abuse.
Employers will also be told that they should take the time to explain things properly to maids.
'You buy a new washing machine, you buy a new microwave oven. You cannot expect her to learn it because many of us don't. And she presses a few buttons wrong and it blows up, tough luck,' he said.
'If you lay a finger on her, you go to jail. No arguments. You need to teach her.'
Maids interviewed by The Straits Times yesterday welcomed Dr Ng's tough stance.
Madam Gloria Abanoja, 41, a Filipina, said: 'It's very hard to say no to our employers when they tell us to do certain dangerous chores.
'Some employers don't understand that we are human beings too.'
Miss Braema Mathi, who heads TWC2, a group fighting for maid welfare, applauded Dr Ng for 'sending out such a clear and strong signal'.
But she said employers should also be told not abuse maids emotionally or psychologically, by calling them 'stupid', for example.
Mrs Helen Tan, president of the Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore), thinks that the law should be brought to bear on employers, by making orientation programmes mandatory for instance.
'It seems that people are not willing to change their mindsets and no amount of public education can change that,' she said.
But the law is not the answer, said Dr Ng.
'We have legislation that says that you can't kick and physically abuse your maid.
'But you ask yourself, do you need legislation to tell people that?'.
