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.
Friday, March 11, 2005
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."
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