Foreign students flock to Singapore for training in service industry
By Valarie Tan
Channel NewsAsia, 04 December 2005
Some say Singapore's service standards can be improved but for many foreign students, the Republic is the place to be trained in the service industry.
The Manpower Ministry has issued 3,000 training passes so far this year to foreign students on short-term attachments, mainly in the service sector.
That's twice the number given out two years ago.
21-year-old Nathaniel Cepe is on a 6-month attachment in Singapore.
The finance undergraduate from the Philippines is learning about the retail industry from the basics and gets S$450 as a monthly allowance while on training.
This is just half the pay of his full-time counterpart.
He said: "I am here not to earn, but to learn things. That I put in my mind, so I take it positively."
From dealing with people to stock-taking, he has learnt many things from his so-called first job.
Nathaniel said: "Fixing up things, which is very basic that we're having in the shop, like doing the lights. Before I'm not doing that but with this training, I try to open my mind."
Irene Lian, Nathaniel's Employment Agent, said: "We would have constant meet-ups with employers, with the establishments, as well as the students to gather feedback, how they're getting used to themselves over at the current attachments."
But not everyone is eligible for such attachments.
Ms Lian said: "In terms of screening process, we'd ensure that students meet a certain criteria or a certain level of language ability. In the Philippines, we would give talks and seminars to 3rd and 4th year students in the universities and colleges which are accredited with CHED, or the Commission of Higher Education in the Philippines. And all our students must possess and apply for overseas training certificates before they depart the Philippines."
Agents say foreign students coming to Singapore for attachments have doubled in recent years.
One agent, GMP Recruitment Services recruited 200 such students in 2003 and the number hit 400 this year.
A total of 1,000 foreign students have been in Singapore on attachments over the last 2 years, with 70 percent from the Philippines and 30 percent from China.
Other than coming to work on attachments, the number of foreigners coming here to study hospitality has also gone up.
Private schools say enrolment has gone up by 20 to 30 percent over the past 2 years.
And at the Tourism Academy@Sentosa, a 2-year diploma course in hospitality and tourism business is hugely popular with foreigners.
One of the students there is 17-year-old "Sweet" Khine Mon Kyaw from Myanmar, whose parents are footing the S$25,000 course fees.
Khine Mon Kyaw said: "In my country we also get the private schools like this but it's not government schools and they're not very well-known in my country because it's private. So many people are interested in Tourism@Sentosa."
Yong Kit Mun, Course Manager, Hospitality and Tourism, Tourism Academy@Sentosa, said: "When we look at the service standards in Singapore, I know there are a lot of brickbats being thrown at the level. But I think generally our service levels are improving."
"And for the internationals to come in, a lot of them do benefit from being in a cosmopolitan society. Right here for example they have a chance to study amongst some 10 nationalities. From that angle, I think in terms of service we're all learning from each other which is part and parcel of the training here."
Chew Hua Seng, CEO, Hartford Institute, said: "We get a pool of people who are more genuinely interested to come into the tourism and hospitality whereas Singaporeans tend to take it as a job. We should actually develop the sense to want to come into hospitality, to come into this industry."
Industry experts couldn't agree more.
Heinrich Grafe, GM, Conrad Centennial, said: "On of our biggest challenges in the industry is that not enough Singaporeans would like to work in the service industry. The industry's growing, we have a lot of new hotels being planned. Over the next 5 to 10 years, we have the so-called 2 integrated resorts coming up and thousands of employees are needed. I don't think Singapore can supply the number of employees to work in that area. For that, I don't think these students will take over jobs from Singaporeans. They can complement the workforce here." -
Sunday, December 4, 2005
Monday, November 14, 2005
Singapore shocker: Maid's day off
Philip Bowring
Published: Monday, November 14, 2005
The New York Times
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/14/opinion/14iht-edbowring.html
HONG KONG — Recent news out of Singapore caused jaws to drop: Foreign domestic workers there may become entitled to one day off a month!
Stories of exploitation and abuse of migrant workers, especially women, in the richer countries of East Asia are so common as to barely elicit comment. But the Singapore report set off a media debate about the wisdom of allowing maids any days off. It emerged that it was common for maids not to be allowed out at all, for fear that they might wind up pregnant. Currently, an employer must pay a government fee, in addition to food, housing and medical care - and repatriate any maid who becomes pregnant. Many employers regard these impositions as reason to deprive maids of the normal rights of adults.
"We can't control the maids. So it's best that when we employ the maid, we tell the agent we don't want to give days off," one employer wrote to a local paper. A 2003 newspaper poll showed that 50 percent of maids got no days off; a lucky 10 percent got one day a week.
The news also focused attention on the role that foreign contract workers play in raising the living standards of citizens of several countries. The Singapore case stands out because of the wealth of the country, the size of its foreign labor force, the racial identity of its domestic workers and its strict regulation. Also highlighted was the widening income gap generally and the relationship of income to ethnicity in a society where the Malay 14 percent is well behind in earnings, education and unemployment but has a fertility rate double that of the Chinese majority.
Of a population of 4.35 million, 747,900 were nonresidents with various kinds of work permits as of 2003. The number of nonresidents has more than doubled since 1990, while the natural increase in the citizen population has been small.
Some nonresidents are professionals and their families, but most are manual workers, sex workers and, by some estimates, about 150,000 domestic workers. The latter are at the bottom of the underclass and are specifically exempted from the Employment Act, which provides minimum days off and maximum weekly hours.
Maids are allowed only from specified Asian countries, with the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka heading the list. Chinese are not on the list, which leads some to allege that only "brown people" or those from non-Confucian societies are to be employed in this most menial job. Like days off, pay is subject to individual contract and varies widely; it probably averages around 15 percent of the median income of Singaporeans in full-time employment.
No middle-class home is complete without a maid, which explains why the labor force participation rate, at 64 percent, is one of the world's highest.
Exploitation of migrant labor may be worse in countries like Malaysia and Thailand, where law enforcement is lax. But in Hong Kong, the most comparable territory, there is a minimum wage for domestic workers, and they are entitled to one day off a week and all public holidays. Admittedly, the law isn't rigorously enforced, and as everywhere, maids are gouged by employment agencies. But social restrictions are few.
Singapore has been making some effort to improve conditions. Prosecutions for abuse have increased and the minimum age for maids raised to 23. However, the one-day-a-month requirement will still be just a part of the individual work contract, so the employee will have to initiate action to enforce it. It can also be commuted to an overtime payment.
Maids apart, the rise in income inequality in Singapore has been of concern locally. The government prevents the formation of ethnic low-income ghettos by dispersing minorities around the public housing in which 78 percent of the population live. Likewise, it seeks to keep religion from becoming a public issue by stifling all debate in the name of harmony.
Singapore's success in keeping the lid on its growing underclass is clear enough. But behind the abundant prosperity, clean streets and superb infrastructure is another Singapore of labor exploitation. In the case of domestic workers, it is nothing less than shocking.
Published: Monday, November 14, 2005
The New York Times
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/14/opinion/14iht-edbowring.html
HONG KONG — Recent news out of Singapore caused jaws to drop: Foreign domestic workers there may become entitled to one day off a month!
Stories of exploitation and abuse of migrant workers, especially women, in the richer countries of East Asia are so common as to barely elicit comment. But the Singapore report set off a media debate about the wisdom of allowing maids any days off. It emerged that it was common for maids not to be allowed out at all, for fear that they might wind up pregnant. Currently, an employer must pay a government fee, in addition to food, housing and medical care - and repatriate any maid who becomes pregnant. Many employers regard these impositions as reason to deprive maids of the normal rights of adults.
"We can't control the maids. So it's best that when we employ the maid, we tell the agent we don't want to give days off," one employer wrote to a local paper. A 2003 newspaper poll showed that 50 percent of maids got no days off; a lucky 10 percent got one day a week.
The news also focused attention on the role that foreign contract workers play in raising the living standards of citizens of several countries. The Singapore case stands out because of the wealth of the country, the size of its foreign labor force, the racial identity of its domestic workers and its strict regulation. Also highlighted was the widening income gap generally and the relationship of income to ethnicity in a society where the Malay 14 percent is well behind in earnings, education and unemployment but has a fertility rate double that of the Chinese majority.
Of a population of 4.35 million, 747,900 were nonresidents with various kinds of work permits as of 2003. The number of nonresidents has more than doubled since 1990, while the natural increase in the citizen population has been small.
Some nonresidents are professionals and their families, but most are manual workers, sex workers and, by some estimates, about 150,000 domestic workers. The latter are at the bottom of the underclass and are specifically exempted from the Employment Act, which provides minimum days off and maximum weekly hours.
Maids are allowed only from specified Asian countries, with the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka heading the list. Chinese are not on the list, which leads some to allege that only "brown people" or those from non-Confucian societies are to be employed in this most menial job. Like days off, pay is subject to individual contract and varies widely; it probably averages around 15 percent of the median income of Singaporeans in full-time employment.
No middle-class home is complete without a maid, which explains why the labor force participation rate, at 64 percent, is one of the world's highest.
Exploitation of migrant labor may be worse in countries like Malaysia and Thailand, where law enforcement is lax. But in Hong Kong, the most comparable territory, there is a minimum wage for domestic workers, and they are entitled to one day off a week and all public holidays. Admittedly, the law isn't rigorously enforced, and as everywhere, maids are gouged by employment agencies. But social restrictions are few.
Singapore has been making some effort to improve conditions. Prosecutions for abuse have increased and the minimum age for maids raised to 23. However, the one-day-a-month requirement will still be just a part of the individual work contract, so the employee will have to initiate action to enforce it. It can also be commuted to an overtime payment.
Maids apart, the rise in income inequality in Singapore has been of concern locally. The government prevents the formation of ethnic low-income ghettos by dispersing minorities around the public housing in which 78 percent of the population live. Likewise, it seeks to keep religion from becoming a public issue by stifling all debate in the name of harmony.
Singapore's success in keeping the lid on its growing underclass is clear enough. But behind the abundant prosperity, clean streets and superb infrastructure is another Singapore of labor exploitation. In the case of domestic workers, it is nothing less than shocking.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Day off for maids? Sadly our 'money' mind is showing
The following article was published in the Straits Times on 28 Oct 2005.
Day off for maids? Sadly our 'money' mind is showing
By Lydia Lim
Straits Times, 28 October 2005
IF SOMEONE offered you a job with zero days off a month, I can bet you would recoil in horror and wonder how any employer could expect that of a worker.
And yet, that is what many of us expect of foreign maids.
A reminder of the 'special' treatment doled out to the 140,000 or so foreign domestic helpers here cropped up this week.
The cause? The news that employers would finally be required to give maids one day off a month starting next year, or compensate them in cash.
The story made me sit up. I asked myself how one day off each month could possibly be enough rest for any worker, let alone maids, many of whom are expected to put in 15-hour days.
The situation is an anomaly as Singapore's Employment Act states clearly that every employee shall be entitled to one rest day a week. And other foreign workers here, who toil in places such as factories and construction sites, do get days off.
So why are maids treated differently? And how did we as a society come to accept such inequality as a matter of course?
I would argue that a big factor is how we tend to view people in a utilitarian way. By that, I mean this society tends to judge a person by his economic usefulness and, more often than not, measures this in terms of the salary he draws.
On this scale, maids - unsurprisingly - are at the bottom of the heap.
This is not unique to Singapore, of course. Many other countries also judge a person by his earning power.
The difference is that in developed countries in the West, at least, there is an opposite point of view to act as a counterweight. The balancing force is the value these societies also place on the rights of each individual.
This is based on the belief that every person deserves to be treated as a human being, regardless of external trappings such as wealth and status. Each person has intrinsic worth simply because he is human.
In Singapore, this view does not yet seem to feature prominently in how people think or relate to each other.
And this is the source of the problem. Because the more a person is measured by his economic utility, the more he will be seen as a tool, a machine, a factor of production - in other words, a means to a measurable monetary end.
The foreign maid, in this equation, is reduced to the ultimate car-washing, floor-mopping, child-rearing, cooking and ironing machine.
And what is the rational thing to do with machines? Work them flat out, surely, for no one worries about operating equipment 24/7 unless this causes them to break down.
I was struck by the comparison one Filipino maid drew between the treatment she received here and in Ireland, where she now works.
She told The New Paper: 'Here I am treated like a real person. In Singapore, I was smaller than an ant.
'In Singapore, the children scream at me even when they just want a glass of water. Here, my employer serves me at the dinner table. She would ask me, 'Coffee or tea for you?' '
The scene she described concerned an ordinary courtesy that many would extend to someone they were dining with. Yet, it would be considered extraordinary in the Singapore context if the person at the receiving end was a maid.
This is not to say that all Singaporeans treat their maids badly. There are many who are kind but I'm not sure that even in those cases, the starting point in the dealings between Ma'am and maid is one between two equal human beings, each with her own job to do.
Sadly, a utilitarian view of people influences not just the way many of us treat foreign maids but also one another.
Consider the plight of those citizens who are viewed as less than economically dynamic: the jobless, the elderly, the stay-at-home mums.
Many of them seem to feel there is a question mark over their 'usefulness to society'.
So when it comes to the issue of rest days for maids, I agree with those who say legislation is not the answer. The problem runs deep and is best addressed through education.
There is no point passing a law to mandate days off for foreign maids when most of society do not yet recognise that this is the decent thing to do.
What you will be left with is a situation in which employers find ways and means to get around the law and maids don't dare complain because they fear losing their jobs.
It is a state of affairs that can change only over time.
What would help speed the process along is for influential members of society, including politicians and judges, to keep reminding Singaporeans that maids are human too.
Day off for maids? Sadly our 'money' mind is showing
By Lydia Lim
Straits Times, 28 October 2005
IF SOMEONE offered you a job with zero days off a month, I can bet you would recoil in horror and wonder how any employer could expect that of a worker.
And yet, that is what many of us expect of foreign maids.
A reminder of the 'special' treatment doled out to the 140,000 or so foreign domestic helpers here cropped up this week.
The cause? The news that employers would finally be required to give maids one day off a month starting next year, or compensate them in cash.
The story made me sit up. I asked myself how one day off each month could possibly be enough rest for any worker, let alone maids, many of whom are expected to put in 15-hour days.
The situation is an anomaly as Singapore's Employment Act states clearly that every employee shall be entitled to one rest day a week. And other foreign workers here, who toil in places such as factories and construction sites, do get days off.
So why are maids treated differently? And how did we as a society come to accept such inequality as a matter of course?
I would argue that a big factor is how we tend to view people in a utilitarian way. By that, I mean this society tends to judge a person by his economic usefulness and, more often than not, measures this in terms of the salary he draws.
On this scale, maids - unsurprisingly - are at the bottom of the heap.
This is not unique to Singapore, of course. Many other countries also judge a person by his earning power.
The difference is that in developed countries in the West, at least, there is an opposite point of view to act as a counterweight. The balancing force is the value these societies also place on the rights of each individual.
This is based on the belief that every person deserves to be treated as a human being, regardless of external trappings such as wealth and status. Each person has intrinsic worth simply because he is human.
In Singapore, this view does not yet seem to feature prominently in how people think or relate to each other.
And this is the source of the problem. Because the more a person is measured by his economic utility, the more he will be seen as a tool, a machine, a factor of production - in other words, a means to a measurable monetary end.
The foreign maid, in this equation, is reduced to the ultimate car-washing, floor-mopping, child-rearing, cooking and ironing machine.
And what is the rational thing to do with machines? Work them flat out, surely, for no one worries about operating equipment 24/7 unless this causes them to break down.
I was struck by the comparison one Filipino maid drew between the treatment she received here and in Ireland, where she now works.
She told The New Paper: 'Here I am treated like a real person. In Singapore, I was smaller than an ant.
'In Singapore, the children scream at me even when they just want a glass of water. Here, my employer serves me at the dinner table. She would ask me, 'Coffee or tea for you?' '
The scene she described concerned an ordinary courtesy that many would extend to someone they were dining with. Yet, it would be considered extraordinary in the Singapore context if the person at the receiving end was a maid.
This is not to say that all Singaporeans treat their maids badly. There are many who are kind but I'm not sure that even in those cases, the starting point in the dealings between Ma'am and maid is one between two equal human beings, each with her own job to do.
Sadly, a utilitarian view of people influences not just the way many of us treat foreign maids but also one another.
Consider the plight of those citizens who are viewed as less than economically dynamic: the jobless, the elderly, the stay-at-home mums.
Many of them seem to feel there is a question mark over their 'usefulness to society'.
So when it comes to the issue of rest days for maids, I agree with those who say legislation is not the answer. The problem runs deep and is best addressed through education.
There is no point passing a law to mandate days off for foreign maids when most of society do not yet recognise that this is the decent thing to do.
What you will be left with is a situation in which employers find ways and means to get around the law and maids don't dare complain because they fear losing their jobs.
It is a state of affairs that can change only over time.
What would help speed the process along is for influential members of society, including politicians and judges, to keep reminding Singaporeans that maids are human too.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Maid charged with killing elderly boss
The following article was published in TODAY on 22 Oct 2005.
Maid charged with killing elderly boss
By Ansley Ng
TODAY (Singapore), 22 October 2005
AN Indonesian maid was charged in court for the murder of her elderly female employer yesterday.
Barokah, 26, is accused of killing Madam Wee Keng Wah on Wednesday between midnight and 7.16am at Block 19 Chai Chee Road.
Mdm Wee, 75, who was found lying in a pool of blood at the foot of the block, suffered multiple injuries and was pronounced dead at 7.30am.
Her arms strapped to her sides, the stout-looking maid, who has short hair and is around 1.6m tall, displayed no emotion in the dock.
Barokah, who has not been represented by a lawyer, is the second foreign maid to be charged with murder in two months.
Last month, Filipino maid Guen Garlejo Aguilar was accused of killing fellow maid Jane Parangan La Puebla, whose body parts were discovered in two bags outside Orchard MRT station and MacRitchie Reservoir.
Mr Fachry Sulaiman, the Indonesian embassy's First Secretary for Protocol and Consular Affairs, told reporters outside court that Barokah's family in Java had been informed of the arrest.
The maid, who has been working in Singapore for about a year, is married and has a young son. She has been working for Mdm Wee for about a month.
"We will arrange for her family to come to Singapore," said Mr Fachry, adding that a lawyer had been appointed.
Barokah will return to court on Oct 27.
Maid charged with killing elderly boss
By Ansley Ng
TODAY (Singapore), 22 October 2005
AN Indonesian maid was charged in court for the murder of her elderly female employer yesterday.
Barokah, 26, is accused of killing Madam Wee Keng Wah on Wednesday between midnight and 7.16am at Block 19 Chai Chee Road.
Mdm Wee, 75, who was found lying in a pool of blood at the foot of the block, suffered multiple injuries and was pronounced dead at 7.30am.
Her arms strapped to her sides, the stout-looking maid, who has short hair and is around 1.6m tall, displayed no emotion in the dock.
Barokah, who has not been represented by a lawyer, is the second foreign maid to be charged with murder in two months.
Last month, Filipino maid Guen Garlejo Aguilar was accused of killing fellow maid Jane Parangan La Puebla, whose body parts were discovered in two bags outside Orchard MRT station and MacRitchie Reservoir.
Mr Fachry Sulaiman, the Indonesian embassy's First Secretary for Protocol and Consular Affairs, told reporters outside court that Barokah's family in Java had been informed of the arrest.
The maid, who has been working in Singapore for about a year, is married and has a young son. She has been working for Mdm Wee for about a month.
"We will arrange for her family to come to Singapore," said Mr Fachry, adding that a lawyer had been appointed.
Barokah will return to court on Oct 27.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Other options for maids' rest days? Compensation for them among ideas suggested
The following article was published in TODAY on 10 June 2005.
Other options for maids' rest days? Compensation for them among ideas suggested
By Wong Fei Wanfei
TODAY, 10 June 2005
SOME say they simply can't afford the change. Some have started giving it a thought and are thinking outside of the box.
As expected, the call by the Association of Employment Agencies (AEAS) to give foreign domestic workers (FDWs) four rest days a month has kicked up a storm. But it has also started a debate from which answers may emerge.
For Ms Doreen Seet, though, the questions come first. She works half-days on Saturdays and says that she simply cannot spare the time off for her Indonesian maid.
"I am the sole caregiver for my mother. Every Sunday, I have to rush to the market, then do the housework after that. If I give my maid a day off, who is going to look after my mother while I am out?"
The administrative assistant stressed that she was not against the rest days but opposed a blanket rule because different employers have different needs.
Mr Angland Seah, the AEAS president whose call sparked the debate, is looking at how the proposal of four rest days a month could be worked into a standardised employment contract. But he is also looking at other ways to make the proposal acceptable.
For example, the employer and the FDW could negotiate the number of rest days and the dates. The catch is that AEAS wants the domestic helper to be compensated $16 for each rest day she was required to work on.
If Ms Seet's maid is not given a day off, the scheme would allow her to take home $64 extra every month. But Ms Seet said she simply cannot afford this. "I am not highly paid," she said.
Another employer, who wanted to be known only as Ayu, said such an arrangement was unfair to employers who hired maids only because they were forced to.
Mr Seah conceded this but urged such families to give their maids at least a half-day off a month.
He also pointed out that foreign maid levies had dropped by $50 a month to $295 since April 1. And families with children under 12 years or parents older than 65 years now pay just $200, down from the $250 they paid earlier.
Some of the money saved could be used to compensate FDWs who have to work on rest days, he suggested.
Other minds were also at work.
Ms Zirah Rahim of Jobuzz Consultants suggested that if someone desperately needed the maid at home, as in Ms Seet's case, then perhaps she the FDW could be allowed to invite her friends or relatives over for a few hours.
And employment agency owner Arthur Loo said both employers and FDWs needed rest days but that two a month might be more appropriate than four.
Employers are also worried that their $5,000 bond would be forfeited if the FDWs "get into trouble" while on their days off.
"The maid is not going to pay you back the bond if she decides to run away," said Mr Chew Mun Leong, who gives his maid a day off each month.
But Mrs Anne Lee, another employer, felt maids needed their breaks too.
"The maid can recharge and enjoy herself on her days off. I believe that makes her a better and happier worker," she said.
How it all started
THE proposal for days off and compensation came about because many FDWs are flocking to countries such as Taiwan and Hong Kong where they command a higher salary. Rest days and other incentives could keep them here said ASES president Angland Seah.
Last month, the Hong Kong government announced that the minimum wage for the city's 200,000 foreign domestic helpers would be raised by HK$50 ($10.66) to HK$3,3320.
Over in Taiwan, foreigners enter the country as caregivers, commanding a monthly minimum wage of NT$15,840 ($842).
Other options for maids' rest days? Compensation for them among ideas suggested
By Wong Fei Wanfei
TODAY, 10 June 2005
SOME say they simply can't afford the change. Some have started giving it a thought and are thinking outside of the box.
As expected, the call by the Association of Employment Agencies (AEAS) to give foreign domestic workers (FDWs) four rest days a month has kicked up a storm. But it has also started a debate from which answers may emerge.
For Ms Doreen Seet, though, the questions come first. She works half-days on Saturdays and says that she simply cannot spare the time off for her Indonesian maid.
"I am the sole caregiver for my mother. Every Sunday, I have to rush to the market, then do the housework after that. If I give my maid a day off, who is going to look after my mother while I am out?"
The administrative assistant stressed that she was not against the rest days but opposed a blanket rule because different employers have different needs.
Mr Angland Seah, the AEAS president whose call sparked the debate, is looking at how the proposal of four rest days a month could be worked into a standardised employment contract. But he is also looking at other ways to make the proposal acceptable.
For example, the employer and the FDW could negotiate the number of rest days and the dates. The catch is that AEAS wants the domestic helper to be compensated $16 for each rest day she was required to work on.
If Ms Seet's maid is not given a day off, the scheme would allow her to take home $64 extra every month. But Ms Seet said she simply cannot afford this. "I am not highly paid," she said.
Another employer, who wanted to be known only as Ayu, said such an arrangement was unfair to employers who hired maids only because they were forced to.
Mr Seah conceded this but urged such families to give their maids at least a half-day off a month.
He also pointed out that foreign maid levies had dropped by $50 a month to $295 since April 1. And families with children under 12 years or parents older than 65 years now pay just $200, down from the $250 they paid earlier.
Some of the money saved could be used to compensate FDWs who have to work on rest days, he suggested.
Other minds were also at work.
Ms Zirah Rahim of Jobuzz Consultants suggested that if someone desperately needed the maid at home, as in Ms Seet's case, then perhaps she the FDW could be allowed to invite her friends or relatives over for a few hours.
And employment agency owner Arthur Loo said both employers and FDWs needed rest days but that two a month might be more appropriate than four.
Employers are also worried that their $5,000 bond would be forfeited if the FDWs "get into trouble" while on their days off.
"The maid is not going to pay you back the bond if she decides to run away," said Mr Chew Mun Leong, who gives his maid a day off each month.
But Mrs Anne Lee, another employer, felt maids needed their breaks too.
"The maid can recharge and enjoy herself on her days off. I believe that makes her a better and happier worker," she said.
How it all started
THE proposal for days off and compensation came about because many FDWs are flocking to countries such as Taiwan and Hong Kong where they command a higher salary. Rest days and other incentives could keep them here said ASES president Angland Seah.
Last month, the Hong Kong government announced that the minimum wage for the city's 200,000 foreign domestic helpers would be raised by HK$50 ($10.66) to HK$3,3320.
Over in Taiwan, foreigners enter the country as caregivers, commanding a monthly minimum wage of NT$15,840 ($842).
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
Afraid, but I need the cash
The following article was published in The New Paper on 4 May 2005.
Afraid, but I need the cash
By Jaclyn Lim
The New Paper, 04 May 2005
A FOREIGN maid here is supposed to work for a specific employer.
But there is a murky underworld of maids who hop from one household to another - a few hours at one, then on to the next.
These are the house-to-house maids.
These part-time, often freelance operatives, earn more than the rest - but run the risk of being nabbed by the law.
Nina (not her real name) is one such maid.
The 33-year-old offers her services to several families even though she knows she is breaking the law.
The New Paper met her at the Burger King outlet in Liat Towers recently.
Dressed in a black tank top and a skirt, she looked like any ordinary worker out on an errand.
In fact, she had just finished a cleaning job at a home near Orchard Road.
4 TO 6 HOURS
Nina officially works for one employer - but regularly cleans for three others.
She visits each family two or three times a week, each time working from four to six hours.
She also babysits twice a month, for five hours a session.
Nina is paid $10 an hour for both her cleaning and babysitting jobs.
It adds up to a monthly income of more than $1,000. She sends half back home and uses the rest for food, transport and other expenses.
On average, a foreign domestic worker earns about $380 monthly.
'Some employers don't have money to pay their maids but still need domestic help, so they'll let them work part-time,' Nina said.
Nina cleans and cooks for her 'sponsor family', as she calls her official employer, but they do not pay her.
Instead, they pay her maid levy, which was lowered from $345 to $250 for families with young children and elderly parents or grandparents effective from last August.
The family also provides her with food, lodging and the legal right to stay in Singapore.
Nina feels she is lucky to have met the family.
'They are kind. Some maids are made to pay for everything - food, rent, and levy,' she said.
The main lure of such part-time cleaning jobs is the money.
'A full-time maid doesn't earn much,' Nina said.
Working as a part-time maid, she earns 2 1/2 times more than a full-time maid.
Nina also likes the freedom and flexibility of being a house-to-house maid.
A full-time maid is expected to be at the beck and call of her employers.
MANAGE OWN TIME
Said Nina: 'Employers can wake you up in the middle of the night and get you to do chores for them'.
But she can manage her own time.
That said, she says she knows of house-to-house maids who work from 6am to midnight every day.
'Especially those who have to finish up their chores at their sponsor families' apartments every night,' she said.
To save money, even when rushing from one job to another, Nina never takes a taxi.
'Sometimes I fall asleep during the bus journey and miss the stop,' she laughed.
Last December, ovarian cysts were detected in her body.
Regular checkups at a private hospital followed. She now takes medication which costs about $50 monthly.
Nina said: 'If I am a full-time maid, and the employers know of my condition, they can send me home anytime.'
So she feels she is better off as a part-time maid even though it is illegal.
She said: 'We are afraid. But we see no way out.'
She added that the maids here all share similar dreams - to live a better life back home.
Nina herself hopes that soon, she can go back to her country and buy a piece of land to set up a pig farm.
These dreams are why so many maids here turned to part-time cleaning jobs, said Nina.
Afraid, but I need the cash
By Jaclyn Lim
The New Paper, 04 May 2005
A FOREIGN maid here is supposed to work for a specific employer.
But there is a murky underworld of maids who hop from one household to another - a few hours at one, then on to the next.
These are the house-to-house maids.
These part-time, often freelance operatives, earn more than the rest - but run the risk of being nabbed by the law.
Nina (not her real name) is one such maid.
The 33-year-old offers her services to several families even though she knows she is breaking the law.
The New Paper met her at the Burger King outlet in Liat Towers recently.
Dressed in a black tank top and a skirt, she looked like any ordinary worker out on an errand.
In fact, she had just finished a cleaning job at a home near Orchard Road.
4 TO 6 HOURS
Nina officially works for one employer - but regularly cleans for three others.
She visits each family two or three times a week, each time working from four to six hours.
She also babysits twice a month, for five hours a session.
Nina is paid $10 an hour for both her cleaning and babysitting jobs.
It adds up to a monthly income of more than $1,000. She sends half back home and uses the rest for food, transport and other expenses.
On average, a foreign domestic worker earns about $380 monthly.
'Some employers don't have money to pay their maids but still need domestic help, so they'll let them work part-time,' Nina said.
Nina cleans and cooks for her 'sponsor family', as she calls her official employer, but they do not pay her.
Instead, they pay her maid levy, which was lowered from $345 to $250 for families with young children and elderly parents or grandparents effective from last August.
The family also provides her with food, lodging and the legal right to stay in Singapore.
Nina feels she is lucky to have met the family.
'They are kind. Some maids are made to pay for everything - food, rent, and levy,' she said.
The main lure of such part-time cleaning jobs is the money.
'A full-time maid doesn't earn much,' Nina said.
Working as a part-time maid, she earns 2 1/2 times more than a full-time maid.
Nina also likes the freedom and flexibility of being a house-to-house maid.
A full-time maid is expected to be at the beck and call of her employers.
MANAGE OWN TIME
Said Nina: 'Employers can wake you up in the middle of the night and get you to do chores for them'.
But she can manage her own time.
That said, she says she knows of house-to-house maids who work from 6am to midnight every day.
'Especially those who have to finish up their chores at their sponsor families' apartments every night,' she said.
To save money, even when rushing from one job to another, Nina never takes a taxi.
'Sometimes I fall asleep during the bus journey and miss the stop,' she laughed.
Last December, ovarian cysts were detected in her body.
Regular checkups at a private hospital followed. She now takes medication which costs about $50 monthly.
Nina said: 'If I am a full-time maid, and the employers know of my condition, they can send me home anytime.'
So she feels she is better off as a part-time maid even though it is illegal.
She said: 'We are afraid. But we see no way out.'
She added that the maids here all share similar dreams - to live a better life back home.
Nina herself hopes that soon, she can go back to her country and buy a piece of land to set up a pig farm.
These dreams are why so many maids here turned to part-time cleaning jobs, said Nina.
Tuesday, May 3, 2005
Maids: Stories of sacrifice
The following article was published in the Straits Times on 5 March 2005.
Maids: Stories of sacrifice
By Ng Hui Hui
Saturday Special Report
Straits Times, 05 March 2005
Poverty drives millions to leave their homes in search of work. In Singapore, 150,000 foreign domestic workers toil in the hopes of giving their families a better life back home.
BACK home, Ms Encarnacion Montales is hailed as a 'bagong bayani', which means modern hero in Tagalog and is one of the highest honours in the Philippines.
If she lands at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport during Christmas, she is waved through an express Customs lane specially set aside for all returning Overseas Foreign Workers.
Sometimes, the President joins beaming government officials in greeting and garlanding heroes like her.
In 1998, the 59-year-old, who has worked in Singapore as a maid for 20 years, won one of four annual Bagong Bayani Awards. It was started in 1984 to recognise outstanding foreign workers whose effort - more importantly, income - abroad has contributed significantly to the Philippines.
According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, at any one time, about 10 per cent of the country's 86 million people is working abroad. About half of them work as maids, the rest as seafarers, nurses or technical workers.
According to 2003 statistics, Saudi Arabia was the top destination of Filipino workers. Hong Kong ranked second, followed by Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Kuwait, then Singapore.
The money they send home, which peaked at US$7.6 billion (S$12 billion) in 2003, accounts for 7.5 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.
On a national level, it boosts foreign currency reserves, cushions the impact of worldwide recession by stabilising the peso, and helps settle the country's external debt, which shot up to US$58 billion in 2003.
On a personal level, their wages help transform ramshackle dens into majestic multi-storey houses with proper plumbing, start small businesses for jobless siblings and husbands, foot parents' medical bills and see children through school.
Hence the red-carpet hero's welcome for these foreign workers.
But the moment maids like Ms Montales head off to work, their lot is anything but heroic.
Reverend Angel Luciano, the Filipino spiritual director of a Catholic Church welfare group serving foreign workers in Singapore, says: 'Calling them heroes is their government's way of giving them recognition. In church, I call them 'sacrificial lambs' because they are doing all this for their families.'
His group, formed in 1998, runs skills centres and a counselling service for the estimated 150,000 foreign maids in Singapore today.
There are no available official figures but industry players estimate that 55 per cent of them are Indonesians, 40 per cent Filipinos and the rest are Sri Lankans, Indians and others.
Maid agencies say that most come here in their 20s from rural villages or impoverished cities. While Filipinas are usually better educated and many have university degrees, Indonesians typically come with only primary education.
The Filipinas are the highest-paid, earning between $320 and $350 a month, while Indonesians and Indians earn the least - $210 to $250 a month.
From April, wages for Indonesian maids will go up by $50 a month - in a move by the Association of Employment Agencies to entice more Indonesians to come to Singapore. In recent years, many have preferred to work in Hong Kong or Taiwan where they can earn up to three times more.
Most of the 30 maids interviewed by The Straits Times for this report say they see Singapore as a 'stepping stone' to pick up skills in nursing, dressmaking and baking and to improve their English.
Ultimately, they dream of landing a job in places like Belgium or Italy, where they can earn up to 450 euros (S$970).
Many say they had no choice in coming here - they were simply sent here after signing cut-throat deals with transfer agents at home.
Typically, these agents exact prepayment of up to $1,800 to arrange for their pre-departure training, orientation and air passage here. That means about six months of their wages.
It means most maids have to grin and bear with working here for at least two years to make it worth their while. Most have little choice because of grinding poverty at home, where two in five Filipinos live below the poverty line and survive on less than US$1 a person per day.
The high unemployment rate in the Philippines - which reached a record five million last year - forced Ms Remia Regalado to become a maid in Singapore.
After six months of searching in vain for a software job after bagging a computing degree in Makati, she lowered her expectations and settled for a job as a cook.
But when her father needed a costly heart operation six years ago, she knew her salary of 1,500 pesos a month would no longer do, swallowed her pride and became a maid.
'I felt I had wasted my degree then, but it's okay. At least I can earn more to help my family,' she says with a stoic smile.
But while she had to stifle her dreams, for others, becoming a foreign maid in a faraway land is a dream come true, sometimes also providing an escape from family problems.
Indonesian maid Susanti Lasiman put up with her husband's gambling and joblessness in Lampung, Sumatra, until he became abusive as well.
'He would scold and hit me when he lost money. Sometimes, he threw things at me,' recounts the petite 27-year-old who fled home four years ago to work as a maid first in Malaysia and then in Singapore two years later.
Although she misses her two children, aged three and nine, she is happy with her 'more peaceful' life and stash of savings here.
Hard-won trust
BUT she is among the charmed minority of maids here, having won the trust of her employers, a Chinese couple living in a four-room HDB flat in Serangoon.
Maid agencies say many Singaporean employers go to great lengths to test their maids' honesty, such as installing hidden cameras to spy on them.
Ms Maria Luisa Tayco, a 44-year-old Filipina who came here to work in 1990, relates: 'I only knew about the cameras when my ma'am finally told me about it four years later. I was a bit angry when I found out but luckily, I hadn't done anything wrong.'
Filipina Amelia Sentina, 52, who has worked in three homes over the past 21 years, was tested so routinely she could tell the signs.
'My employers would leave money in various locations. It was obvious they were testing me because this 'habit' of leaving money lying around always stopped after some time,' she recounts.
Other employers are paranoid about their maids making friends or chatting with neighbours.
Indonesian Ari Sumajo, 29, who worked in Taiwan and Malaysia before coming here last year, laments: 'If I talk loudly at home, Madam scolds me. If I talk to other people, she also scolds me.'
In her experience, Singaporean employers are the most exacting, imperious and tight-fisted.
There is the flip side of course.
Ms Montales' employers, a family of three living in a five-room HDB flat in Bishan, for example, set up and pay the bills for a private phone line she uses as the de facto counselling hotline for Filipinas here.
'Every day, I get all kinds of calls asking for help. I believe I may have even saved a few lives through counselling,' she gushes.
Another Filipina Mel Icabandi, 37, now works for a Swiss family in Adam Road, but still prefers her former employer, a Chinese family in a four-room HDB flat in Hougang.
'Although they were less generous with off-days, they treated me more like family. When they introduced me to their friends, it was as 'helper' or 'companion', never as 'maid'.
'They asked me about my family and I confided in them.'
According to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the number of people banned from hiring foreign maids has come down from 49 in 2001 to 30 in 2003.
To set some ground rules on the treatment of maids, the ministry started a half-day compulsory orientation programme for first-time employers last April. More than 17,200 have attended since.
Still, an average of 10 foreign maids seek help each day from their embassies, complaining of physical or sexual abuse, wage disputes, inadequate food or stress.
Maid agencies here note that some Singaporean employers work their maids to the bone. To get their money's worth, some draw up a mile-long list of chores that mean shifts of up to 16 hours.
More fortunate maids here enjoy a shoe-box-size room to themselves. But the norm is to share a room with the employers' children, which means sleeping on the floor.
According to Mrs Bridget Lew of the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics, which runs shelters for maids, some sleep in the living room, balcony, or even 'under the study table'.
Mr Peter Loh, co-owner of the Swift Arrow Maids agency, which has eight branches, notes: 'I remember a client who complained that her maid never seemed to remember anything she was told.
'Later, we discovered it was because she woke up at 5.30am and worked till 2am every day.'
The problem was solved when the maid was allowed to go to bed two hours earlier.
Family ATMs
STILL, most maids say they try to put on a happy face - at least to their folks back home.
Filipina Jennifer Buado Atizado, 22, who is supporting her younger siblings at home, says: 'People look down on us here but I don't want my family to know what I'm going through.' She and others routinely mail back rosy pictures of themselves posed against the Merlion in Sentosa or the Orchard Road Christmas light-up - inadvertently sending the message that they are having the time of their lives.
That only lures even more naive young women here and results in families badgering the maids for money, notes Father Angel. He wishes the women would send photos of themselves mopping floors and wiping windows 'because that is more reflective of their hardship here'.
Indeed, many maids like Ms Tayco say they are snowed under by incessant demands for money by family members, who often treat them like automated teller machines (ATMs).
Teary-eyed, she confides: 'Whether it's to buy a jeepney or new cellphone, they keep asking me for money. But no one even bothers to send me a Christmas card.'
She vents her frustrations by 'crying like a mad woman' in church and immersing herself in community work.
In desperation, some have been driven to suicide - but not before penning heart-wrenching letters to their families.
Dr Chia Boon Hock, a psychiatrist who monitors spikes in suicide rates here, says that between 1995 and 2003, a total of 77 maids - 51 Indonesians, 11 Filipinas, nine Indians and four Sri Lankans, two of other nationalities - took their own lives.
He shows a suicide note peppered with phrases like 'no day without scolding', 'have to work from 5am till midnight' and 'employers here are crazy and bossy'.
He notes: 'The figures for Indonesian maids are alarming because it is uncommon for Muslims to kill themselves. I suspect this has something to do with the fact that they do not speak English well. Like lost souls, they find it difficult to adapt to this strange new land.'
Indeed, maid agents and welfare groups say the language barrier is often the root of misunderstandings between maid and employer.
To solve this problem, MOM ruled in January that new maids must be at least 23 years old, with at least eight years of formal education.
From April, first-time maids here have to do a written test upon arrival to gauge, among other things, their literacy in English.
But what of the more complex issue of over-controlling, invasive and mean employers?
Many employers interviewed say they have 'little choice' but to watch their maids like hawks. Most cite the mandatory $5,000 deposit they pay when hiring a maid - and the spectre of losing it if their maid misbehaves - as the reason for their tight rein.
Housewife Veron Chen, 30 is not ashamed that she recently confiscated the mobile phone she gave her maid after she discovered mushy SMSes flying between her and a few men.
'I don't want to lose the $5,000 deposit,' she says. 'What if she gets into bad company or gets pregnant?'
But MOM confirms that, contrary to popular belief, the $5,000 security bond is not confiscated when a maid gets pregnant. Her work permit will be revoked and she will be sent home, but there is no penalty for the employer.
That deposit is at risk only if the maid runs away. Even then, the employer has a grace pe- riod of two to three months to find her.
The ministry knows that it is not always possible for an employer to stop a maid from running away.
But employers of foreign maids know from the start that they have a responsibility to send the workers home at the end of their stay.
Without that obligation, a ministry spokesman explains, there is a risk of having a large number of foreign maids being abandoned by their employers for a variety of reasons.
Few happy endings
ULTIMATELY, what spurs most maids to plod on is the romantic mirage of returning home to the loving, grateful fold of their families and a better life with non-leaky roofs, VCRs and fans.
However, when homecoming day finally dawns, many find themselves faced with frosty reality instead.
Indonesian Rusiyah Bani, 25, returned to her hometown in 2003 after a two-year stint here, looking forward to 'kissing and hugging' her five-year-old son.
But the boy, unused to her, ran away from her. 'It hurt me very much and I almost cried,' she recounts. Her technician husband, meanwhile, had run off with someone else. She is back here again, working to support her son.
Another left with the shards of a broken marriage was Ms Tayco, who returned to Manila in 1993 after working here for three years only to find her husband in the arms of another woman.
It was a painful 'double betrayal' as the other woman was her close friend. Then her five-year-old daughter, Corazon, died from a brain haemorrhage.
Fighting back tears, she says: 'I would never have imagined he was spending the money I gave him on another woman. He blames me for leaving but if I hadn't come here, would he be able to survive?
'Who is to know my pain and tears?'
Maids: Stories of sacrifice
By Ng Hui Hui
Saturday Special Report
Straits Times, 05 March 2005
Poverty drives millions to leave their homes in search of work. In Singapore, 150,000 foreign domestic workers toil in the hopes of giving their families a better life back home.
BACK home, Ms Encarnacion Montales is hailed as a 'bagong bayani', which means modern hero in Tagalog and is one of the highest honours in the Philippines.
If she lands at Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport during Christmas, she is waved through an express Customs lane specially set aside for all returning Overseas Foreign Workers.
Sometimes, the President joins beaming government officials in greeting and garlanding heroes like her.
In 1998, the 59-year-old, who has worked in Singapore as a maid for 20 years, won one of four annual Bagong Bayani Awards. It was started in 1984 to recognise outstanding foreign workers whose effort - more importantly, income - abroad has contributed significantly to the Philippines.
According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, at any one time, about 10 per cent of the country's 86 million people is working abroad. About half of them work as maids, the rest as seafarers, nurses or technical workers.
According to 2003 statistics, Saudi Arabia was the top destination of Filipino workers. Hong Kong ranked second, followed by Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Kuwait, then Singapore.
The money they send home, which peaked at US$7.6 billion (S$12 billion) in 2003, accounts for 7.5 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.
On a national level, it boosts foreign currency reserves, cushions the impact of worldwide recession by stabilising the peso, and helps settle the country's external debt, which shot up to US$58 billion in 2003.
On a personal level, their wages help transform ramshackle dens into majestic multi-storey houses with proper plumbing, start small businesses for jobless siblings and husbands, foot parents' medical bills and see children through school.
Hence the red-carpet hero's welcome for these foreign workers.
But the moment maids like Ms Montales head off to work, their lot is anything but heroic.
Reverend Angel Luciano, the Filipino spiritual director of a Catholic Church welfare group serving foreign workers in Singapore, says: 'Calling them heroes is their government's way of giving them recognition. In church, I call them 'sacrificial lambs' because they are doing all this for their families.'
His group, formed in 1998, runs skills centres and a counselling service for the estimated 150,000 foreign maids in Singapore today.
There are no available official figures but industry players estimate that 55 per cent of them are Indonesians, 40 per cent Filipinos and the rest are Sri Lankans, Indians and others.
Maid agencies say that most come here in their 20s from rural villages or impoverished cities. While Filipinas are usually better educated and many have university degrees, Indonesians typically come with only primary education.
The Filipinas are the highest-paid, earning between $320 and $350 a month, while Indonesians and Indians earn the least - $210 to $250 a month.
From April, wages for Indonesian maids will go up by $50 a month - in a move by the Association of Employment Agencies to entice more Indonesians to come to Singapore. In recent years, many have preferred to work in Hong Kong or Taiwan where they can earn up to three times more.
Most of the 30 maids interviewed by The Straits Times for this report say they see Singapore as a 'stepping stone' to pick up skills in nursing, dressmaking and baking and to improve their English.
Ultimately, they dream of landing a job in places like Belgium or Italy, where they can earn up to 450 euros (S$970).
Many say they had no choice in coming here - they were simply sent here after signing cut-throat deals with transfer agents at home.
Typically, these agents exact prepayment of up to $1,800 to arrange for their pre-departure training, orientation and air passage here. That means about six months of their wages.
It means most maids have to grin and bear with working here for at least two years to make it worth their while. Most have little choice because of grinding poverty at home, where two in five Filipinos live below the poverty line and survive on less than US$1 a person per day.
The high unemployment rate in the Philippines - which reached a record five million last year - forced Ms Remia Regalado to become a maid in Singapore.
After six months of searching in vain for a software job after bagging a computing degree in Makati, she lowered her expectations and settled for a job as a cook.
But when her father needed a costly heart operation six years ago, she knew her salary of 1,500 pesos a month would no longer do, swallowed her pride and became a maid.
'I felt I had wasted my degree then, but it's okay. At least I can earn more to help my family,' she says with a stoic smile.
But while she had to stifle her dreams, for others, becoming a foreign maid in a faraway land is a dream come true, sometimes also providing an escape from family problems.
Indonesian maid Susanti Lasiman put up with her husband's gambling and joblessness in Lampung, Sumatra, until he became abusive as well.
'He would scold and hit me when he lost money. Sometimes, he threw things at me,' recounts the petite 27-year-old who fled home four years ago to work as a maid first in Malaysia and then in Singapore two years later.
Although she misses her two children, aged three and nine, she is happy with her 'more peaceful' life and stash of savings here.
Hard-won trust
BUT she is among the charmed minority of maids here, having won the trust of her employers, a Chinese couple living in a four-room HDB flat in Serangoon.
Maid agencies say many Singaporean employers go to great lengths to test their maids' honesty, such as installing hidden cameras to spy on them.
Ms Maria Luisa Tayco, a 44-year-old Filipina who came here to work in 1990, relates: 'I only knew about the cameras when my ma'am finally told me about it four years later. I was a bit angry when I found out but luckily, I hadn't done anything wrong.'
Filipina Amelia Sentina, 52, who has worked in three homes over the past 21 years, was tested so routinely she could tell the signs.
'My employers would leave money in various locations. It was obvious they were testing me because this 'habit' of leaving money lying around always stopped after some time,' she recounts.
Other employers are paranoid about their maids making friends or chatting with neighbours.
Indonesian Ari Sumajo, 29, who worked in Taiwan and Malaysia before coming here last year, laments: 'If I talk loudly at home, Madam scolds me. If I talk to other people, she also scolds me.'
In her experience, Singaporean employers are the most exacting, imperious and tight-fisted.
There is the flip side of course.
Ms Montales' employers, a family of three living in a five-room HDB flat in Bishan, for example, set up and pay the bills for a private phone line she uses as the de facto counselling hotline for Filipinas here.
'Every day, I get all kinds of calls asking for help. I believe I may have even saved a few lives through counselling,' she gushes.
Another Filipina Mel Icabandi, 37, now works for a Swiss family in Adam Road, but still prefers her former employer, a Chinese family in a four-room HDB flat in Hougang.
'Although they were less generous with off-days, they treated me more like family. When they introduced me to their friends, it was as 'helper' or 'companion', never as 'maid'.
'They asked me about my family and I confided in them.'
According to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the number of people banned from hiring foreign maids has come down from 49 in 2001 to 30 in 2003.
To set some ground rules on the treatment of maids, the ministry started a half-day compulsory orientation programme for first-time employers last April. More than 17,200 have attended since.
Still, an average of 10 foreign maids seek help each day from their embassies, complaining of physical or sexual abuse, wage disputes, inadequate food or stress.
Maid agencies here note that some Singaporean employers work their maids to the bone. To get their money's worth, some draw up a mile-long list of chores that mean shifts of up to 16 hours.
More fortunate maids here enjoy a shoe-box-size room to themselves. But the norm is to share a room with the employers' children, which means sleeping on the floor.
According to Mrs Bridget Lew of the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics, which runs shelters for maids, some sleep in the living room, balcony, or even 'under the study table'.
Mr Peter Loh, co-owner of the Swift Arrow Maids agency, which has eight branches, notes: 'I remember a client who complained that her maid never seemed to remember anything she was told.
'Later, we discovered it was because she woke up at 5.30am and worked till 2am every day.'
The problem was solved when the maid was allowed to go to bed two hours earlier.
Family ATMs
STILL, most maids say they try to put on a happy face - at least to their folks back home.
Filipina Jennifer Buado Atizado, 22, who is supporting her younger siblings at home, says: 'People look down on us here but I don't want my family to know what I'm going through.' She and others routinely mail back rosy pictures of themselves posed against the Merlion in Sentosa or the Orchard Road Christmas light-up - inadvertently sending the message that they are having the time of their lives.
That only lures even more naive young women here and results in families badgering the maids for money, notes Father Angel. He wishes the women would send photos of themselves mopping floors and wiping windows 'because that is more reflective of their hardship here'.
Indeed, many maids like Ms Tayco say they are snowed under by incessant demands for money by family members, who often treat them like automated teller machines (ATMs).
Teary-eyed, she confides: 'Whether it's to buy a jeepney or new cellphone, they keep asking me for money. But no one even bothers to send me a Christmas card.'
She vents her frustrations by 'crying like a mad woman' in church and immersing herself in community work.
In desperation, some have been driven to suicide - but not before penning heart-wrenching letters to their families.
Dr Chia Boon Hock, a psychiatrist who monitors spikes in suicide rates here, says that between 1995 and 2003, a total of 77 maids - 51 Indonesians, 11 Filipinas, nine Indians and four Sri Lankans, two of other nationalities - took their own lives.
He shows a suicide note peppered with phrases like 'no day without scolding', 'have to work from 5am till midnight' and 'employers here are crazy and bossy'.
He notes: 'The figures for Indonesian maids are alarming because it is uncommon for Muslims to kill themselves. I suspect this has something to do with the fact that they do not speak English well. Like lost souls, they find it difficult to adapt to this strange new land.'
Indeed, maid agents and welfare groups say the language barrier is often the root of misunderstandings between maid and employer.
To solve this problem, MOM ruled in January that new maids must be at least 23 years old, with at least eight years of formal education.
From April, first-time maids here have to do a written test upon arrival to gauge, among other things, their literacy in English.
But what of the more complex issue of over-controlling, invasive and mean employers?
Many employers interviewed say they have 'little choice' but to watch their maids like hawks. Most cite the mandatory $5,000 deposit they pay when hiring a maid - and the spectre of losing it if their maid misbehaves - as the reason for their tight rein.
Housewife Veron Chen, 30 is not ashamed that she recently confiscated the mobile phone she gave her maid after she discovered mushy SMSes flying between her and a few men.
'I don't want to lose the $5,000 deposit,' she says. 'What if she gets into bad company or gets pregnant?'
But MOM confirms that, contrary to popular belief, the $5,000 security bond is not confiscated when a maid gets pregnant. Her work permit will be revoked and she will be sent home, but there is no penalty for the employer.
That deposit is at risk only if the maid runs away. Even then, the employer has a grace pe- riod of two to three months to find her.
The ministry knows that it is not always possible for an employer to stop a maid from running away.
But employers of foreign maids know from the start that they have a responsibility to send the workers home at the end of their stay.
Without that obligation, a ministry spokesman explains, there is a risk of having a large number of foreign maids being abandoned by their employers for a variety of reasons.
Few happy endings
ULTIMATELY, what spurs most maids to plod on is the romantic mirage of returning home to the loving, grateful fold of their families and a better life with non-leaky roofs, VCRs and fans.
However, when homecoming day finally dawns, many find themselves faced with frosty reality instead.
Indonesian Rusiyah Bani, 25, returned to her hometown in 2003 after a two-year stint here, looking forward to 'kissing and hugging' her five-year-old son.
But the boy, unused to her, ran away from her. 'It hurt me very much and I almost cried,' she recounts. Her technician husband, meanwhile, had run off with someone else. She is back here again, working to support her son.
Another left with the shards of a broken marriage was Ms Tayco, who returned to Manila in 1993 after working here for three years only to find her husband in the arms of another woman.
It was a painful 'double betrayal' as the other woman was her close friend. Then her five-year-old daughter, Corazon, died from a brain haemorrhage.
Fighting back tears, she says: 'I would never have imagined he was spending the money I gave him on another woman. He blames me for leaving but if I hadn't come here, would he be able to survive?
'Who is to know my pain and tears?'
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Dirty dorm shut down
The following article was first published in the New Paper on 17 April 2005.
Dirty dorm shut down
By Sim Chi Yin
The New Paper,17 April 2005
-Operators fined $1,000
-It has fire safety problems, says SCDF
- Operator has no official approval to run place as dorm, building approved only for manufacturing use
You have two weeks to close down.
That's the order from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) on 4 Apr to operators of a dormitory housing migrant workers at 80 Tuas Avenue 1 after it discovered fire safety breaches there.
On 2 Apr, The New Paper reported that 300 migrant workers had gone on strike to protest the conditions, which they said were filthy and unsafe.
The authorities then called for operators GoldStrong Dormitory to rectify the hygiene and fire safety-related problems.
The agencies - SCDF, Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) - had inspected the dormitory on 22 Mar, following a complaint.
In a joint response this week, the SCDF said the two fire safety breaches it found - unauthorised change of use of the premises, and additions and alterations made without fire safety submission - compromised the safety of workers.
GoldStrong was fined $500 for each of these offences and slapped with a 'cease operations' order on 4 Apr, said an MOM spokesman who issued the joint reply to The New Paper's queries.
NOT APPROVED
Investigations also revealed that the entire commercial dormitory operation never received official approval.
GoldStrong operated a dormitory for some 800 workers on the third, fourth and fifth storeys of the light industrial building owned by a company called Research Technology.
JTC Corporation, which owns the land, has ordered its lessee - Research Technology - to demolish all unauthorised structures.
In a separate joint e-mail reply with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and SCDF this week, JTC said it has served Research Technology a demolition order on 12 Apr under the Building Control Act.
The JTC said Research Technology had failed to comply with the approved usage and converted the third to fifth storeys into commercial dormitories without official approval.
It has 30 days to reinstate the approved plans and use of the premises, said JTC.
The building had been approved for manufacturing of computing and data processing equipment, accessories and computer peripheral equipment.
Research Technology was also allowed to have a dormitory - but only on the fifth storey and solely for its own work permit holders, said the JTC.
The company was was not allowed to convert it into a commercial dormitory.
When The New Paper visited the dormitory on 30 Mar after the workers' strike, GoldStrong's administration manager, Ms Sally Ang, said there were about 800 workers from various companies living there. The workers we spoke to were from different companies in the shipbuilding industry.
Ms Ang said that she had been running the Tuas dormitory - one of two her company operates - for three years and had no problems with the authorities.
While she later admitted that the third storey operation had not been given the official green light, she claimed that she had approval from the authorities for the rest of the dormitory and faxed us a letter from the JTC and another one from the URA as 'proof'.
The copy of the JTC letter she faxed us, dated 28 Jul 2003, ended with the line 'please note that the workers' dormitory mentioned is meant to accommodate workers'.
When we asked JTC for a copy of the same letter - it read 'please note that the workers' dormitory mentioned is meant to accommodate workers employed by your company only and not meant for other factories' workers'.
Likewise, URA granted written permission in December 2000 for Research Technology to house only its own workers in a fifth-storey dormitory.
And its letter stated that the dormitory was meant for not more than 500 workers, the URA said.
The SCDF also said that 'neither Research Technology nor GoldStrong had ever submitted any plans for commercial dormitory operations'.
Ms Ang could not be reached for comment this week. When we called Mr Aw Lai San, who is listed in the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority records as managing director of Research Technology, he said he was 'not in charge of the dormitory'.
'Closed down. No more already,' he said and hung up.
Acra records also showed that GoldStrong Dormitory has the same registered office as Research Technology.
JTC and SCDF said no previous inspections had been made on the premises because they act on complaints, and there were none before.
Workers have to find a new place fast
THE 800 or so migrant workers at GoldStrong Dormitory have to be relocated - and quickly.
This is because the SCDF has issued a 'cease operations' deadline of 18 Apr.
Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, chairman of NTUC's Migrant Workers Forum, told The New Paper: 'What's going to happen to the workers? We can't leave them high and dry.'
A MOM spokesman said: 'The Ministry has reminded the affected employers of their responsibilities to provide acceptable housing for their foreign workers, which is an existing work permit condition.
'They are expected to take immediate steps to regularise the housing of their foreign workers, failing which they are liable for prosecution under the Employment of Foreign Worker Act for acting in breach of the work permit condition.
'They are required to inform the Ministry on the alternative housing arrangement they have made for their workers.'
Mr Yeo said that on Tuesday he attended a meeting at MOM for companies affected by the dormitory closure.
'I met 30 to 40 employers, a mix of construction and marine companies. They didn't know that the dormitory was not an approved one. They're not irresponsible employers.
'My understanding is that it was not their intention to breach any rules or house their workers in less than favourable conditions.'
'Whoever did the wrong thing, the workers should not be the ones to suffer,' he added.
Mr K S Wong, a manager with Ta-Ching Marine Technology which has 300 workers at the dormitory, said: 'We thought it was approved. No employer would (knowingly) put its workers in a non-approved dormitory, right?'
Mr Pang Swee Siong, managing director of Skya Construction which had 10 workers in GoldStrong Dormitory for over a year, said the operator showed him papers, including a URA letter, indicating approval.
He said: 'We didn't actually check the paperwork. We thought the URA paper would be enough.'
He said he signed a contract with GoldStrong and paid a monthly fee of $90 per worker plus two months' deposit at the start.
He added that GoldStrong told him on Wednesday that he would get his $1,800 deposit back.
He will now be moving his workers to an approved dormitory picked from a list provided by MOM at Tuesday's meeting.
Mr Pang said: 'It's hard to find dormitories for our workers. We want them to stay happy, but it's sad we couldn't find a better place.'
A construction company director, who asked to be named only as Mr Ang, had placed nine of his workers in GoldStrong Dormitory last month.
He also said GoldStrong showed his company approval documents.
Mr Ang said: 'I even have a contract with GoldStrong. Now the MOM says they're not approved.
'It's not fair to us. If they were not approved, how come they could operate for more than two years?'
He noted that he had submitted his migrant workers' 80 Tuas Avenue 1 address to the MOM through its website - as required by the Ministry when there's a change in workers' address.
'So, MOM has a record of where the workers were staying. How come only now, when something has gone wrong, do we get to know that the place is not approved?'
He has already moved his workers to another dormitory in Tuas, saying that he didn't know if that was an approved one either. He will submit the new address to MOM, he added.
The reality is, said Mr Ang, there is a shortage of dormitories for migrant workers.
He said: 'If the authorities really shut down all the non-approved dormitories, I think there will be lots of migrant workers on the streets.'
Mr Yeo, who is also Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) Chairman for Manpower, said: 'At the meeting, the affected employers urged the Government to expedite the approval process for commercial dormitories. The sense is that there is a shortage.'
On GoldStrong, he said: 'We hope the relevant authorities will step up enforcement.'
He added that currently the rules and penalties for commercial dormitory operators who run non-approved premises are not very clear.
'Something should be done about unapproved dormitory operations... just like we do for illegal workers.'
Dirty dorm shut down
By Sim Chi Yin
The New Paper,17 April 2005
-Operators fined $1,000
-It has fire safety problems, says SCDF
- Operator has no official approval to run place as dorm, building approved only for manufacturing use
You have two weeks to close down.
That's the order from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) on 4 Apr to operators of a dormitory housing migrant workers at 80 Tuas Avenue 1 after it discovered fire safety breaches there.
On 2 Apr, The New Paper reported that 300 migrant workers had gone on strike to protest the conditions, which they said were filthy and unsafe.
The authorities then called for operators GoldStrong Dormitory to rectify the hygiene and fire safety-related problems.
The agencies - SCDF, Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) - had inspected the dormitory on 22 Mar, following a complaint.
In a joint response this week, the SCDF said the two fire safety breaches it found - unauthorised change of use of the premises, and additions and alterations made without fire safety submission - compromised the safety of workers.
GoldStrong was fined $500 for each of these offences and slapped with a 'cease operations' order on 4 Apr, said an MOM spokesman who issued the joint reply to The New Paper's queries.
NOT APPROVED
Investigations also revealed that the entire commercial dormitory operation never received official approval.
GoldStrong operated a dormitory for some 800 workers on the third, fourth and fifth storeys of the light industrial building owned by a company called Research Technology.
JTC Corporation, which owns the land, has ordered its lessee - Research Technology - to demolish all unauthorised structures.
In a separate joint e-mail reply with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and SCDF this week, JTC said it has served Research Technology a demolition order on 12 Apr under the Building Control Act.
The JTC said Research Technology had failed to comply with the approved usage and converted the third to fifth storeys into commercial dormitories without official approval.
It has 30 days to reinstate the approved plans and use of the premises, said JTC.
The building had been approved for manufacturing of computing and data processing equipment, accessories and computer peripheral equipment.
Research Technology was also allowed to have a dormitory - but only on the fifth storey and solely for its own work permit holders, said the JTC.
The company was was not allowed to convert it into a commercial dormitory.
When The New Paper visited the dormitory on 30 Mar after the workers' strike, GoldStrong's administration manager, Ms Sally Ang, said there were about 800 workers from various companies living there. The workers we spoke to were from different companies in the shipbuilding industry.
Ms Ang said that she had been running the Tuas dormitory - one of two her company operates - for three years and had no problems with the authorities.
While she later admitted that the third storey operation had not been given the official green light, she claimed that she had approval from the authorities for the rest of the dormitory and faxed us a letter from the JTC and another one from the URA as 'proof'.
The copy of the JTC letter she faxed us, dated 28 Jul 2003, ended with the line 'please note that the workers' dormitory mentioned is meant to accommodate workers'.
When we asked JTC for a copy of the same letter - it read 'please note that the workers' dormitory mentioned is meant to accommodate workers employed by your company only and not meant for other factories' workers'.
Likewise, URA granted written permission in December 2000 for Research Technology to house only its own workers in a fifth-storey dormitory.
And its letter stated that the dormitory was meant for not more than 500 workers, the URA said.
The SCDF also said that 'neither Research Technology nor GoldStrong had ever submitted any plans for commercial dormitory operations'.
Ms Ang could not be reached for comment this week. When we called Mr Aw Lai San, who is listed in the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority records as managing director of Research Technology, he said he was 'not in charge of the dormitory'.
'Closed down. No more already,' he said and hung up.
Acra records also showed that GoldStrong Dormitory has the same registered office as Research Technology.
JTC and SCDF said no previous inspections had been made on the premises because they act on complaints, and there were none before.
Workers have to find a new place fast
THE 800 or so migrant workers at GoldStrong Dormitory have to be relocated - and quickly.
This is because the SCDF has issued a 'cease operations' deadline of 18 Apr.
Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, chairman of NTUC's Migrant Workers Forum, told The New Paper: 'What's going to happen to the workers? We can't leave them high and dry.'
A MOM spokesman said: 'The Ministry has reminded the affected employers of their responsibilities to provide acceptable housing for their foreign workers, which is an existing work permit condition.
'They are expected to take immediate steps to regularise the housing of their foreign workers, failing which they are liable for prosecution under the Employment of Foreign Worker Act for acting in breach of the work permit condition.
'They are required to inform the Ministry on the alternative housing arrangement they have made for their workers.'
Mr Yeo said that on Tuesday he attended a meeting at MOM for companies affected by the dormitory closure.
'I met 30 to 40 employers, a mix of construction and marine companies. They didn't know that the dormitory was not an approved one. They're not irresponsible employers.
'My understanding is that it was not their intention to breach any rules or house their workers in less than favourable conditions.'
'Whoever did the wrong thing, the workers should not be the ones to suffer,' he added.
Mr K S Wong, a manager with Ta-Ching Marine Technology which has 300 workers at the dormitory, said: 'We thought it was approved. No employer would (knowingly) put its workers in a non-approved dormitory, right?'
Mr Pang Swee Siong, managing director of Skya Construction which had 10 workers in GoldStrong Dormitory for over a year, said the operator showed him papers, including a URA letter, indicating approval.
He said: 'We didn't actually check the paperwork. We thought the URA paper would be enough.'
He said he signed a contract with GoldStrong and paid a monthly fee of $90 per worker plus two months' deposit at the start.
He added that GoldStrong told him on Wednesday that he would get his $1,800 deposit back.
He will now be moving his workers to an approved dormitory picked from a list provided by MOM at Tuesday's meeting.
Mr Pang said: 'It's hard to find dormitories for our workers. We want them to stay happy, but it's sad we couldn't find a better place.'
A construction company director, who asked to be named only as Mr Ang, had placed nine of his workers in GoldStrong Dormitory last month.
He also said GoldStrong showed his company approval documents.
Mr Ang said: 'I even have a contract with GoldStrong. Now the MOM says they're not approved.
'It's not fair to us. If they were not approved, how come they could operate for more than two years?'
He noted that he had submitted his migrant workers' 80 Tuas Avenue 1 address to the MOM through its website - as required by the Ministry when there's a change in workers' address.
'So, MOM has a record of where the workers were staying. How come only now, when something has gone wrong, do we get to know that the place is not approved?'
He has already moved his workers to another dormitory in Tuas, saying that he didn't know if that was an approved one either. He will submit the new address to MOM, he added.
The reality is, said Mr Ang, there is a shortage of dormitories for migrant workers.
He said: 'If the authorities really shut down all the non-approved dormitories, I think there will be lots of migrant workers on the streets.'
Mr Yeo, who is also Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) Chairman for Manpower, said: 'At the meeting, the affected employers urged the Government to expedite the approval process for commercial dormitories. The sense is that there is a shortage.'
On GoldStrong, he said: 'We hope the relevant authorities will step up enforcement.'
He added that currently the rules and penalties for commercial dormitory operators who run non-approved premises are not very clear.
'Something should be done about unapproved dormitory operations... just like we do for illegal workers.'
Friday, March 11, 2005
No change to foreign maid list
The following article was published in the Straits Times on 11 March 2005.
No change to foreign maid list
Straits Times, 11 March 2005
THE list of countries from which Singapore households can hire foreign maids will not be expanded to include Vietnam and Cambodia.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Manpower) Hawazi Daipi said this in reply to Mr Ong Ah Heng (Nee Soon Central), who asked if maids could be employed from the two additional countries.
There has been some concern that new and tougher criteria introduced recently by the Ministry of Manpower may reduce the number of maids from traditional sources.
These were the raising of the minimum age for maids from 18 to 23, and the requirement that they have at least eight years of formal schooling.
However, Mr Hawazi assured the House that even with the new measures, there were sufficient numbers to be employed from existing approved countries, which include Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The $50 reduction in the maid levy - which comes into effect from April 1 and brings the levy down to $295 - will also ensure that employers can afford to pay more for better quality maids from these countries.
No change to foreign maid list
Straits Times, 11 March 2005
THE list of countries from which Singapore households can hire foreign maids will not be expanded to include Vietnam and Cambodia.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Manpower) Hawazi Daipi said this in reply to Mr Ong Ah Heng (Nee Soon Central), who asked if maids could be employed from the two additional countries.
There has been some concern that new and tougher criteria introduced recently by the Ministry of Manpower may reduce the number of maids from traditional sources.
These were the raising of the minimum age for maids from 18 to 23, and the requirement that they have at least eight years of formal schooling.
However, Mr Hawazi assured the House that even with the new measures, there were sufficient numbers to be employed from existing approved countries, which include Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
The $50 reduction in the maid levy - which comes into effect from April 1 and brings the levy down to $295 - will also ensure that employers can afford to pay more for better quality maids from these countries.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Singapore to have new law to enhance workplace safety
Singapore to have new law to enhance workplace safety
Channel NewsAsia, 10 March 2005
SINGAPORE: Singapore will have a new law on work safety and occupational health by the end of the year.
The new Workplace Safety and Health Act will replace the current Factories Act and have higher penalties for poor safety management even before accidents happen.
Giving the details in a ministerial statement in Parliament, Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen said the aim was to halve the present occupational fatality rate by the year 2015.
And if this was achieved, Singapore's workplace safety records would be parallel to those of the top ten developed countries.
The new legislation is expected to be tabled in Parliament in the third quarter of this year.
The Manpower Ministry explained that while Singapore's safety standards had improved steadily over the past 20 years, of late they have stagnated.
Recently, several serious workplace accidents have taken place, resulting in the precious loss of lives.
Dr Ng told Parliament the accidents in the Nicoll Highway collapse, Fusionpolis, and the oil tanker blast at Keppel Shipyard last year served as timely wake-up calls for a firm and decisive action.
The new legislative framework aims to reduce risks at source and require industry to take greater ownership of safety outcomes.
To prevent accidents, it will set higher penalties for poor safety management.
The Ministry said the current Factories Act was highly prescriptive with safety requirements spelt out in detail.
This created a mindset for management and employees to simply follow the law and not address safety aspects outside the legislation.
The new framework will be more goal-setting in approach, requiring companies to develop safety procedures suited to their own situations.
And there will be greater financial disincentives and penalties on workplaces with unsafe systems even before an accident occurs.
To involve industry stakeholders in developing and revising safety and health standards, the Ministry will set up a Workplace Safety and Health Council.
And to keep abreast with international developments, an International Advisory Panel - comprising experts in various safety and health fields - will be appointed to inject fresh views and review Singapore's regulatory regime.
The president of the Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI), Mr Heng Chiang Gnee, welcomed the new legislative framework.
He said: "Where fatality is concerned, you should always target for zero and hopefully the action plans you introduce in aiming to achieve a zero fatality rate would show a continuous improvement in trends, not only in fatality, but also in frequency and severity rate.
"If you got a very good safety management system resulting in a very good safety performance, you are likely to induce more business to your company. This is a philosophy that is very important.
"If one looks at the safety system as just purely adding cost, then the incentive to really embark on action plans linked to this new framework may then face certain obstacles. I hope within our industry, within other industries in Singapore, people see this as not purely something bringing about higher costs. But, I think, if you do it right, it will bring about better business for the company." - CNA
Channel NewsAsia, 10 March 2005
SINGAPORE: Singapore will have a new law on work safety and occupational health by the end of the year.
The new Workplace Safety and Health Act will replace the current Factories Act and have higher penalties for poor safety management even before accidents happen.
Giving the details in a ministerial statement in Parliament, Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen said the aim was to halve the present occupational fatality rate by the year 2015.
And if this was achieved, Singapore's workplace safety records would be parallel to those of the top ten developed countries.
The new legislation is expected to be tabled in Parliament in the third quarter of this year.
The Manpower Ministry explained that while Singapore's safety standards had improved steadily over the past 20 years, of late they have stagnated.
Recently, several serious workplace accidents have taken place, resulting in the precious loss of lives.
Dr Ng told Parliament the accidents in the Nicoll Highway collapse, Fusionpolis, and the oil tanker blast at Keppel Shipyard last year served as timely wake-up calls for a firm and decisive action.
The new legislative framework aims to reduce risks at source and require industry to take greater ownership of safety outcomes.
To prevent accidents, it will set higher penalties for poor safety management.
The Ministry said the current Factories Act was highly prescriptive with safety requirements spelt out in detail.
This created a mindset for management and employees to simply follow the law and not address safety aspects outside the legislation.
The new framework will be more goal-setting in approach, requiring companies to develop safety procedures suited to their own situations.
And there will be greater financial disincentives and penalties on workplaces with unsafe systems even before an accident occurs.
To involve industry stakeholders in developing and revising safety and health standards, the Ministry will set up a Workplace Safety and Health Council.
And to keep abreast with international developments, an International Advisory Panel - comprising experts in various safety and health fields - will be appointed to inject fresh views and review Singapore's regulatory regime.
The president of the Association of Singapore Marine Industries (ASMI), Mr Heng Chiang Gnee, welcomed the new legislative framework.
He said: "Where fatality is concerned, you should always target for zero and hopefully the action plans you introduce in aiming to achieve a zero fatality rate would show a continuous improvement in trends, not only in fatality, but also in frequency and severity rate.
"If you got a very good safety management system resulting in a very good safety performance, you are likely to induce more business to your company. This is a philosophy that is very important.
"If one looks at the safety system as just purely adding cost, then the incentive to really embark on action plans linked to this new framework may then face certain obstacles. I hope within our industry, within other industries in Singapore, people see this as not purely something bringing about higher costs. But, I think, if you do it right, it will bring about better business for the company." - CNA
Monday, March 7, 2005
'Days off earned through trust '; Top maids talk issues out with employers
The following article was published in TODAY on 7 March 2005.
'Days off earned through trust '; Top maids talk issues out with employers
Lee U-Wen
TODAY, 07 March 2005
WHEN Filipino maid Mary-Ann Doco arrived in Singapore 10 years ago, she took the initiative to have a frank talk with her new employer before starting work.
This, said the 34-year-old, gave both parties the chance to talk about their expectations for each other - on issues such as working hours, household chores, dos and don'ts and, of course, that all-important day-off policy.
Ms Doco, who gets one Sunday off every fortnight, is luckier than many of her counterparts.
Over the past fortnight, Today readers have hotly debated whether maids should have more than one day off a month, prompted by the Association of Employment Agencies Singapore (AEA) recommendation that Indonesian maids should get at least that much time off.
One maid wrote in to say she had worked here for 14 months without a day off.
Other letter-writers expressed anger over what they saw as the unfair treatment of many of Singapore's 150,000 foreign maids - while some employers argued that they couldn't trust their maids with that much free time.
Indonesian Harmini Binti Garun officially gets one off day a month. But with the regular heart-to-heart talks she has with her employer, she has been given the freedom to go out more often.
This privilege, she told Today, "must be earned through time with mutual trust". Both Ms Harmini and Ms Doco were among the winners of the Foreign Domestic Worker of the Year award, held last Friday by the AEA and sponsored by Western Union.
Ms Doco's employer, Mr Lee Boon Chuan, a human resource director, said: "Here's an outsider coming to live with a new family. We have to be reasonable. They have their own lives to lead. I can't imagine working under conditions where you don't get days off."
Both maids, however, agreed that too much of a good thing had its drawbacks.
Said Ms Doco: "If you go out too often, there's more of a chance of mixing with the wrong type of company. If you stay home, you get to save more money for your loved ones. That's what we are here for, after all."
Another employer, Madam Wen Nanfei, who runs an art and music production company, told Today she was pleased with the Government's recent move to lower the foreign maid levy by $50 from next month.
But she would like further cuts, so that she can pass the difference on to the people who need that money the most - the maids themselves.
She said: "It may be a small sum, but even $50 means a lot to the maids. Many of them are sole breadwinners, and they need all the help they can get to support their families back home."
'Days off earned through trust '; Top maids talk issues out with employers
Lee U-Wen
TODAY, 07 March 2005
WHEN Filipino maid Mary-Ann Doco arrived in Singapore 10 years ago, she took the initiative to have a frank talk with her new employer before starting work.
This, said the 34-year-old, gave both parties the chance to talk about their expectations for each other - on issues such as working hours, household chores, dos and don'ts and, of course, that all-important day-off policy.
Ms Doco, who gets one Sunday off every fortnight, is luckier than many of her counterparts.
Over the past fortnight, Today readers have hotly debated whether maids should have more than one day off a month, prompted by the Association of Employment Agencies Singapore (AEA) recommendation that Indonesian maids should get at least that much time off.
One maid wrote in to say she had worked here for 14 months without a day off.
Other letter-writers expressed anger over what they saw as the unfair treatment of many of Singapore's 150,000 foreign maids - while some employers argued that they couldn't trust their maids with that much free time.
Indonesian Harmini Binti Garun officially gets one off day a month. But with the regular heart-to-heart talks she has with her employer, she has been given the freedom to go out more often.
This privilege, she told Today, "must be earned through time with mutual trust". Both Ms Harmini and Ms Doco were among the winners of the Foreign Domestic Worker of the Year award, held last Friday by the AEA and sponsored by Western Union.
Ms Doco's employer, Mr Lee Boon Chuan, a human resource director, said: "Here's an outsider coming to live with a new family. We have to be reasonable. They have their own lives to lead. I can't imagine working under conditions where you don't get days off."
Both maids, however, agreed that too much of a good thing had its drawbacks.
Said Ms Doco: "If you go out too often, there's more of a chance of mixing with the wrong type of company. If you stay home, you get to save more money for your loved ones. That's what we are here for, after all."
Another employer, Madam Wen Nanfei, who runs an art and music production company, told Today she was pleased with the Government's recent move to lower the foreign maid levy by $50 from next month.
But she would like further cuts, so that she can pass the difference on to the people who need that money the most - the maids themselves.
She said: "It may be a small sum, but even $50 means a lot to the maids. Many of them are sole breadwinners, and they need all the help they can get to support their families back home."
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Surprise cut in maid levies
The following article was published in the Straits Times on 19 Feb 2005.
Surprise cut in maid levies
Saturday Special Report
Straits Times, 19 February 2005
Employers will save $600 a year from April 1 with incentive, which will cost Govt $90m
PLENTY of family friendly benefits were doled out, with one of the most surprising measures tailor-made for the home helper.
Foreign maid levies will be chopped by $50 a month to $295 from April 1, saving employers $600 a year. And families with kids under 12 or parents over 65 who are already paying the reduced levy of $250 will now fork out only $200.
The measure, which will cost the Government $90 million, is aimed at helping employers cope with the higher wages for the 'better maids' that Singapore is attracting.
All new foreign maids must now be at least 23 years old and have at least eight years of formal schooling, compared to before, when the only criterion was that they be at least 18.
The Budget also addressed the cost of bringing up babies, with more leeway for parents to enjoy the co-savings scheme launched in August as part of a $300 million pro-family package.
Parents were told then that for their second to fourth child, the Government would match, dollar-for-dollar, the amounts they contributed to a bank account set up for the child until the age of six. The cap was set at $1,000 a year for the second child and $2,000 a year each for the third and fourth child.
But parents had complained that they were sometimes unable to save up to the maximum limits each year. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday: 'They wanted flexibility to save more in years when they can afford to and to use the co-savings in more ways for their child's educational and developmental needs.'
Under changes outlined yesterday, parents can choose to save however much they want in each year, subject to the total limit for six years, which is $6,000 for the second child, and $12,000 each for the third and fourth child.
And instead of the money being restricted for for child and infant care and kindergarten, parents can now put it towards health insurance and early-intervention programmes for special-needs children. More details will be announced during the Committee of Supply.
Young people will also benefit from a one-time $100 addition to the Edusave accounts of every eligible primary and secondary school student, which comes on top of the Government's yearly Edusave handout. The fund can be used by children for enrichment activities such as camps. It will cost the Government $50 million.
The Budget's family measures have pleasantly surprised human resources executive Samantha Sng. The 37-year-old mum of two girls, with a third daughter expected in June, relies on her mother, who is in her 60s, and two maids to care for her children.
She said: 'It's good that families like mine are getting extra help. The greater leeway in use of co-savings will give parents the room to use the funds to best suit their childrens' needs.'
Ernst & Young tax director Jacinta Loi cited the reduction in maid levy as having the greatest impact for the Sngs. 'With two maids, the family will save $1,200 a year.'
Said Mr Arthur Ling, executive director of Fei Yue Community Services: 'The measures are definitely helpful to families, and also give them an element of choice in how they want to use the co-savings.'
Mr Tom Kalwani, 52, pointed to the Edusave top-up as a way to ensure that his daughter, Ekta, who is in Secondary 1, gets an all-rounded education. 'She's interested in modern dance and also wants to go on study tours. I'm sure the extra money will come in handy for such activities,' he said.
Support for families
Changes at a glance:
Reduction in maid levy of $50 a month for all employers. Also applicable to those with children below 12 or old folks over 65 years who are already paying lower levy.
More flexibility in co-savings scheme for the second to fourth child.
A one-time $100 Edusave fund top-up for all eligible primary and secondary school children.
Case study: Human resource executive Samantha Sng and her husband Craig, both 37, have two daughters aged six and two, with a third girl due in June. They live with Mrs Sng's mother, who is in her 60s, and two maids.
The effect of the changes on the Sngs:
Monthly levy for both maids now: $500 altogether
Monthly levy for both maids from 1 April: $400 altogether
Savings: $1,200 a year.
Co-savings scheme for third daughter: Can save as much as she wants each year and will get dollar-for-dollar contribution from the Government, up to a total cap of $12,000 for six years. Can use for health insurance and early-intervention programmes if needed.
For other families with children in school:
Edusave contributions: Children in primary school get $170 a year; those in secondary school get $200 a year.
Now: All eligible children get a $100 one-time addition. Edusave for primary school children is $270 this year and $300 for secondary school children.
Surprise cut in maid levies
Saturday Special Report
Straits Times, 19 February 2005
Employers will save $600 a year from April 1 with incentive, which will cost Govt $90m
PLENTY of family friendly benefits were doled out, with one of the most surprising measures tailor-made for the home helper.
Foreign maid levies will be chopped by $50 a month to $295 from April 1, saving employers $600 a year. And families with kids under 12 or parents over 65 who are already paying the reduced levy of $250 will now fork out only $200.
The measure, which will cost the Government $90 million, is aimed at helping employers cope with the higher wages for the 'better maids' that Singapore is attracting.
All new foreign maids must now be at least 23 years old and have at least eight years of formal schooling, compared to before, when the only criterion was that they be at least 18.
The Budget also addressed the cost of bringing up babies, with more leeway for parents to enjoy the co-savings scheme launched in August as part of a $300 million pro-family package.
Parents were told then that for their second to fourth child, the Government would match, dollar-for-dollar, the amounts they contributed to a bank account set up for the child until the age of six. The cap was set at $1,000 a year for the second child and $2,000 a year each for the third and fourth child.
But parents had complained that they were sometimes unable to save up to the maximum limits each year. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said yesterday: 'They wanted flexibility to save more in years when they can afford to and to use the co-savings in more ways for their child's educational and developmental needs.'
Under changes outlined yesterday, parents can choose to save however much they want in each year, subject to the total limit for six years, which is $6,000 for the second child, and $12,000 each for the third and fourth child.
And instead of the money being restricted for for child and infant care and kindergarten, parents can now put it towards health insurance and early-intervention programmes for special-needs children. More details will be announced during the Committee of Supply.
Young people will also benefit from a one-time $100 addition to the Edusave accounts of every eligible primary and secondary school student, which comes on top of the Government's yearly Edusave handout. The fund can be used by children for enrichment activities such as camps. It will cost the Government $50 million.
The Budget's family measures have pleasantly surprised human resources executive Samantha Sng. The 37-year-old mum of two girls, with a third daughter expected in June, relies on her mother, who is in her 60s, and two maids to care for her children.
She said: 'It's good that families like mine are getting extra help. The greater leeway in use of co-savings will give parents the room to use the funds to best suit their childrens' needs.'
Ernst & Young tax director Jacinta Loi cited the reduction in maid levy as having the greatest impact for the Sngs. 'With two maids, the family will save $1,200 a year.'
Said Mr Arthur Ling, executive director of Fei Yue Community Services: 'The measures are definitely helpful to families, and also give them an element of choice in how they want to use the co-savings.'
Mr Tom Kalwani, 52, pointed to the Edusave top-up as a way to ensure that his daughter, Ekta, who is in Secondary 1, gets an all-rounded education. 'She's interested in modern dance and also wants to go on study tours. I'm sure the extra money will come in handy for such activities,' he said.
Support for families
Changes at a glance:
Reduction in maid levy of $50 a month for all employers. Also applicable to those with children below 12 or old folks over 65 years who are already paying lower levy.
More flexibility in co-savings scheme for the second to fourth child.
A one-time $100 Edusave fund top-up for all eligible primary and secondary school children.
Case study: Human resource executive Samantha Sng and her husband Craig, both 37, have two daughters aged six and two, with a third girl due in June. They live with Mrs Sng's mother, who is in her 60s, and two maids.
The effect of the changes on the Sngs:
Monthly levy for both maids now: $500 altogether
Monthly levy for both maids from 1 April: $400 altogether
Savings: $1,200 a year.
Co-savings scheme for third daughter: Can save as much as she wants each year and will get dollar-for-dollar contribution from the Government, up to a total cap of $12,000 for six years. Can use for health insurance and early-intervention programmes if needed.
For other families with children in school:
Edusave contributions: Children in primary school get $170 a year; those in secondary school get $200 a year.
Now: All eligible children get a $100 one-time addition. Edusave for primary school children is $270 this year and $300 for secondary school children.
Tuesday, February 8, 2005
The trouble with Singapore's foreign maid supply
The following article was published in The New Paper on 8 Feb 2005.
The trouble with Singapore's foreign maid supply
The New Paper, 08 February 2005
FINDING maids for Singapore has become troublesome, said Indonesian suppliers.
Those who are the right age may not have enough education. And those who have enough schooling may not be old enough.
According to the Manpower Ministry's entry requirements, all new maids must be 23 or above and have at least eight years of formal education.
Mr Johanes Tanagan, of the Asosiasi Perusahaan Jasa Tenaga Kerja Indonesia (Apjati), said: 'When most Indonesians come to Singapore to work, they are 18 or 19, not 23.'
From April, all new maids will also have to take a multiple-choice test in English when they arrive.
The MOM introduced these measures to improve the quality of maids here.
After the requirements came into effect on Jan 1, some agencies claimed they have 50 to 70 per cent fewer Indonesian maids to offer employers.
Mr Johanes estimated that recruitment of maids for Singapore had fallen about 80 per cent.
Mr Natal Paung, an Apjati member who has been in the business for eight years, used to send 80 to 100 maids to Singapore each month. This was down to under 20 last month.
'Village women don't usually come to Jakarta with their education certificates, which means we have to send them back to collect or we have to go to their school to apply for them,' he said.
'It's troublesome'.
Other markets are less restrictive and offer better wages and profits, he said. The current top choice is Taiwan, followed by Hong Kong and Malaysia.
'In Taiwan - higher profits for us, higher salary for the maid, ' said another supplier, who declined to be named.
He said that for each domestic worker placed in Taiwan, a supplier can pocket NT37,000 ($1,911) - about twice of what they get for one worker here.
He added that the workers themselves want to head to Taiwan for higher wages and better employers.
A domestic worker can earn the equivalent of about $800 a month in Taiwan, said suppliers. This is more than three times what they earn here.
TESTING PROBLEM
'Applicants still want to come to Singapore. The problem is the test, ' said Mr Januarius Iljas Purwawto, vice-secretary of Apjati's Singapore division.
And there's the question of who will pay for the repatriation if a maid fails the entry test.
'Who wants to pay for that or take the risk? We'd rather ask those who want to come to Singapore to go elsewhere,' he said.
The trouble with Singapore's foreign maid supply
The New Paper, 08 February 2005
FINDING maids for Singapore has become troublesome, said Indonesian suppliers.
Those who are the right age may not have enough education. And those who have enough schooling may not be old enough.
According to the Manpower Ministry's entry requirements, all new maids must be 23 or above and have at least eight years of formal education.
Mr Johanes Tanagan, of the Asosiasi Perusahaan Jasa Tenaga Kerja Indonesia (Apjati), said: 'When most Indonesians come to Singapore to work, they are 18 or 19, not 23.'
From April, all new maids will also have to take a multiple-choice test in English when they arrive.
The MOM introduced these measures to improve the quality of maids here.
After the requirements came into effect on Jan 1, some agencies claimed they have 50 to 70 per cent fewer Indonesian maids to offer employers.
Mr Johanes estimated that recruitment of maids for Singapore had fallen about 80 per cent.
Mr Natal Paung, an Apjati member who has been in the business for eight years, used to send 80 to 100 maids to Singapore each month. This was down to under 20 last month.
'Village women don't usually come to Jakarta with their education certificates, which means we have to send them back to collect or we have to go to their school to apply for them,' he said.
'It's troublesome'.
Other markets are less restrictive and offer better wages and profits, he said. The current top choice is Taiwan, followed by Hong Kong and Malaysia.
'In Taiwan - higher profits for us, higher salary for the maid, ' said another supplier, who declined to be named.
He said that for each domestic worker placed in Taiwan, a supplier can pocket NT37,000 ($1,911) - about twice of what they get for one worker here.
He added that the workers themselves want to head to Taiwan for higher wages and better employers.
A domestic worker can earn the equivalent of about $800 a month in Taiwan, said suppliers. This is more than three times what they earn here.
TESTING PROBLEM
'Applicants still want to come to Singapore. The problem is the test, ' said Mr Januarius Iljas Purwawto, vice-secretary of Apjati's Singapore division.
And there's the question of who will pay for the repatriation if a maid fails the entry test.
'Who wants to pay for that or take the risk? We'd rather ask those who want to come to Singapore to go elsewhere,' he said.
Monday, January 31, 2005
No maid, no problem!
The following article was published in the Straits Times on 31 Jan 2005.
No maid, no problem!
Straits Times, 31 January 2005
BANK manager Esther Lian, 32, does the daily chores herself these days.
She decided to do without a maid six months ago as she wanted a better carer for her two-year-old daughter and more privacy for the family.
Now her little girl goes to a childcare centre and she has a woman from a housekeeping company come in twice a week to clean her five-room flat in Yishun and to do the ironing.
She is not the only one ditching the full-time, live-in maid. No figures are available on how many do so, but housekeeping companies say they have more than enough work on their hands to keep them busy.
The director of Aunt Victoria Sparkles & Cleans, Ms Amy Allyar, said that three years ago, 70 per cent of her clients were expatriates and the rest, locals. Now, it is the other way round.
Another housekeeping agency, Mrs Sparkles, said the ratio of its local customers has grown from 20 to 40 per cent of its clientele.
The profile is also changing, they said, adding that there is a growing number of middle-class families living in Housing Board flats engaging their services.
Singaporeans who have no maid say it is now easier to do without one as there are now care services for infants and the elderly.
The dozen Singaporean families The Straits Times spoke to who do not have live-in maids said they call on the services of individuals and companies to clean, babysit and take care of the elderly, because they are convenient, more efficient and flexible.
It also saves them having to grapple with differences in language and culture, among other things.
As Mrs Lian pointed out: 'What do you do with the maid when the family goes on holiday?'
Financial analyst Tan Chai Har, who also decided to go without a full-time domestic helper six months ago, said: 'Some people are too spoilt by the luxury of having a maid ... like getting served a cup of tea when tired.
'Yes it's tiring, but we're coping well,' added the 34-year-old mother of two, who has dinner at her mother's place now.
More might have to follow in the two women's footsteps because of the new rules on foreign domestic workers. From Jan 1, all new foreign maids must be at least 23 years old and have at least eight years of formal schooling. They must also pass an English test.
The new rules were introduced because the Manpower Ministry expects an influx of new maids and a rise in maid-employer problems, now that it is lowering the foreign maid levy from $345 to $250 for families with children under 12 or with elderly parents or grandparents.
Maid agents say the new rules have forced them to severely cut back on the number of Indonesian domestic workers they bring in because they do not have the necessary years of education or the facility with English.
And as agents push for higher fees for securing a maid from a prospective employer to offset the higher costs charged by the maid suppliers, some Singaporean families are looking seriously at alternatives.
Housekeeping and cleaning companies charge about $280 a month for a weekly four-hour session of cleaning and ironing.
Babysitters charge $500 to $650 a month.
NTUC Childcare charges $450 to $550 for a full-day programme for children aged 18 months to three years old. This is partly offset by a $150 government subsidy. Its full-day fees for infants above two months old are $1,188, before the $400 subsidy.
While families do not mind paying people to clean their homes, they still prefer relatives to take care of their infants and elderly, said companies.
Finance manager Shang Cheow Beng, 35, said it got him worried when his 10-month-old daughter caught bronchitis at a childcare centre and had to be warded for two days.
He has since switched to using a babysitter. 'Viruses spread faster at a childcare centre. My daughter kept falling ill, so it's better for her to be on her own.'
However, the costs of these services can add up.
Each semester, Madam Tan pays about $800 to Gracefields Kindergarten on Sunset Way at which she enrolled her 3 1/2-year-old son. She pays a nanny $600 a month to babysit her six-month-old daughter, and $288 a month for housekeeping services.
But Singaporeans acknowledge their value.
'It's really worth it because I don't feel comfortable leaving my kids with the maid,' Madam Tan said.
Mrs Sparkles' owner, Ms Wynne Chia, said: 'We can customise the type of services to clients' requirements. Say, if client is going away, we allow him to stop our service for a while or he may leave his house keys with us so we can continue our services.'
Help for the family
HOUSEKEEPING
Aunt Victoria Sparkles & Cleans Basic cleaning without ironing - $210 a month, once a week, four times a month, three hours per session. Tel: 6883-2771
Mrs Sparkles Standard package without ironing - $250 a month, once a week, four times a month, four hours per session. Tel: 6298-2923
Homemaker Cleaning Service Standard package with ironing - $280 a month, once a week, four times a month, four hours per session. Tel: 6273-6927
CHILD CARE
NTUC Childcare Half-day programme for children 18 months to three years old - $310 to $380 a month (before $75 government subsidy). Full-day programme - $450 to $550 (before $150 government subsidy).
BABYSITTING
Family Day Care Services The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports has this scheme to match babysitters to parents. Trained babysitters charge $500 to $650 monthly for full-day care.
ELDER CARE
WeCare4U Family Services It has experienced and trained carers to provide home services like bathing, counselling and cooking for the elderly, as well as other services, such as escorting the elderly to and from hospitals or day-care centres for their appointments.
Rates depend on the elderly person's medical conditions and the services required. For details, log on to wecare-4u.com
No maid, no problem!
Straits Times, 31 January 2005
BANK manager Esther Lian, 32, does the daily chores herself these days.
She decided to do without a maid six months ago as she wanted a better carer for her two-year-old daughter and more privacy for the family.
Now her little girl goes to a childcare centre and she has a woman from a housekeeping company come in twice a week to clean her five-room flat in Yishun and to do the ironing.
She is not the only one ditching the full-time, live-in maid. No figures are available on how many do so, but housekeeping companies say they have more than enough work on their hands to keep them busy.
The director of Aunt Victoria Sparkles & Cleans, Ms Amy Allyar, said that three years ago, 70 per cent of her clients were expatriates and the rest, locals. Now, it is the other way round.
Another housekeeping agency, Mrs Sparkles, said the ratio of its local customers has grown from 20 to 40 per cent of its clientele.
The profile is also changing, they said, adding that there is a growing number of middle-class families living in Housing Board flats engaging their services.
Singaporeans who have no maid say it is now easier to do without one as there are now care services for infants and the elderly.
The dozen Singaporean families The Straits Times spoke to who do not have live-in maids said they call on the services of individuals and companies to clean, babysit and take care of the elderly, because they are convenient, more efficient and flexible.
It also saves them having to grapple with differences in language and culture, among other things.
As Mrs Lian pointed out: 'What do you do with the maid when the family goes on holiday?'
Financial analyst Tan Chai Har, who also decided to go without a full-time domestic helper six months ago, said: 'Some people are too spoilt by the luxury of having a maid ... like getting served a cup of tea when tired.
'Yes it's tiring, but we're coping well,' added the 34-year-old mother of two, who has dinner at her mother's place now.
More might have to follow in the two women's footsteps because of the new rules on foreign domestic workers. From Jan 1, all new foreign maids must be at least 23 years old and have at least eight years of formal schooling. They must also pass an English test.
The new rules were introduced because the Manpower Ministry expects an influx of new maids and a rise in maid-employer problems, now that it is lowering the foreign maid levy from $345 to $250 for families with children under 12 or with elderly parents or grandparents.
Maid agents say the new rules have forced them to severely cut back on the number of Indonesian domestic workers they bring in because they do not have the necessary years of education or the facility with English.
And as agents push for higher fees for securing a maid from a prospective employer to offset the higher costs charged by the maid suppliers, some Singaporean families are looking seriously at alternatives.
Housekeeping and cleaning companies charge about $280 a month for a weekly four-hour session of cleaning and ironing.
Babysitters charge $500 to $650 a month.
NTUC Childcare charges $450 to $550 for a full-day programme for children aged 18 months to three years old. This is partly offset by a $150 government subsidy. Its full-day fees for infants above two months old are $1,188, before the $400 subsidy.
While families do not mind paying people to clean their homes, they still prefer relatives to take care of their infants and elderly, said companies.
Finance manager Shang Cheow Beng, 35, said it got him worried when his 10-month-old daughter caught bronchitis at a childcare centre and had to be warded for two days.
He has since switched to using a babysitter. 'Viruses spread faster at a childcare centre. My daughter kept falling ill, so it's better for her to be on her own.'
However, the costs of these services can add up.
Each semester, Madam Tan pays about $800 to Gracefields Kindergarten on Sunset Way at which she enrolled her 3 1/2-year-old son. She pays a nanny $600 a month to babysit her six-month-old daughter, and $288 a month for housekeeping services.
But Singaporeans acknowledge their value.
'It's really worth it because I don't feel comfortable leaving my kids with the maid,' Madam Tan said.
Mrs Sparkles' owner, Ms Wynne Chia, said: 'We can customise the type of services to clients' requirements. Say, if client is going away, we allow him to stop our service for a while or he may leave his house keys with us so we can continue our services.'
Help for the family
HOUSEKEEPING
Aunt Victoria Sparkles & Cleans Basic cleaning without ironing - $210 a month, once a week, four times a month, three hours per session. Tel: 6883-2771
Mrs Sparkles Standard package without ironing - $250 a month, once a week, four times a month, four hours per session. Tel: 6298-2923
Homemaker Cleaning Service Standard package with ironing - $280 a month, once a week, four times a month, four hours per session. Tel: 6273-6927
CHILD CARE
NTUC Childcare Half-day programme for children 18 months to three years old - $310 to $380 a month (before $75 government subsidy). Full-day programme - $450 to $550 (before $150 government subsidy).
BABYSITTING
Family Day Care Services The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports has this scheme to match babysitters to parents. Trained babysitters charge $500 to $650 monthly for full-day care.
ELDER CARE
WeCare4U Family Services It has experienced and trained carers to provide home services like bathing, counselling and cooking for the elderly, as well as other services, such as escorting the elderly to and from hospitals or day-care centres for their appointments.
Rates depend on the elderly person's medical conditions and the services required. For details, log on to wecare-4u.com
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