Day off for maids: S'pore can do better

last SG · 2005-11-06T03:42:07+00:00

The best is to do without maids. You are so lucky. My bro's filipino maid ran to the police station at 4 am one morning. Filed a rape report against him and...

oxford mushroom SG

A day off a month? Would you accept a job with only one day off a month?

nomood SG

No.

Similarly, they don't have to accept it either.

shade343 SG

If they dont like the perks, they can always go find another job.

sgdiehard SG

will you accept job that pay $300 a month, with 2 days off per week?

If they have to spend her own money for food and transport on the off day, many maids, probably with the exception of the philippino, do not want the off day.

Some employers want their privacy especially when they are at home on sunday, they also eat out on sunday, they don't want the maids around.

Where is the compromise? it is for the maid and the employer to decide.

ShutterBug SG

In my opinion, I'd say they should ban use of domestic maids altogether, until Singaporeans learns to respect another humanbeing.

Do everything on your own!

All this maid abuse cases are giving us all, a bad reputation! Ban the use of Maids! No more maids until people here, learns to be more tolerant, humane, kind hearted, and patient.

I've had enough of reading about maid abuse, watching people's maid washing cheap japanese cars in carparks, & watching them eat leftover burgers that the employer's children could not finish in McDonalds. Such a horrible sight to behold of a nation that is so called, DEVELOPED!

If our Public Transport is so efficient, our network of roads and expressways so well laid out, and we can practically go anywhere in Singapore within half an hour by car, why don't people have time enough to do domestic chores on their own? What the hell are in-laws for? Haven't we seen enough of young spoilt-brats running around in MRT trains because the children were brought up by maids?

Wake up, people of Singapore! Having a maid is not the same as owning a pet dog!!!

gerrykoh SG

Very true. If the maid's salary is $250 & she spends $20 on her off day (transpt & makan very expensive now), the most she will take is 1 day/per mth. Some prefer to stay home & rest.

My fren's Filipino maid who has worked for over 15 yrs has every Sun off. She can afford to cos her pay is high.

WiNtEr'SkiLL SG

maybe i will accept work a day a month

[email protected] SG

once a month? i remember in the past when my family hired maids, they always got sunday off. whether they choose to go out or not was up to them.

Fatum SG

you're right ... but the problem is not really about ill-treatment of maids, but Singaporean's attitudes towards people from less fortunate countries, we may have first world wealth and infracstructure (hold the cynicism there ), but we behave like third world banana republic pariahs when it comes to our relationships with these people, doing away with maids won't solve this problem

it's like what I was reading about a certain secondary school's uniform change, apparently, students in this school were neglecting or refusing to pin up their school badges at all times, so, the school decided to do away with pin up badges and sew up a cloth badge onto the shirt front, brillant solution of course, but was the real problem of indisicpline solved ? ...

dragg SG

typical singaporean way of talking.

we all know they dont have a choice. most filipinos are in this line of work. they are not lucky like us, with lots of choices.

pearlie27 SG

my goodness, what you take in-laws for?

as a responsible pet dog owner one has to take good care of the dog you know?

mistyblue SG

many times animals/pets get better treatment in sg than fellow local or foreign persons

Who dare to tell kids off nowadays ?
Govt actions directly tells all the people kids are precious and need to be cuddled and take care of like prince and princesses and the rest of the non elites can got o hell for all they care since we will soon become non-contributing persons to the nation's economic power.

Archirodon SG

I employ a maid. I disagree to a Sunday off a week. Not becasue they don't deserve it but more because they'll get into trouble easily.

Firstly, they over spent, like many girls they like to pamper themselves. Also transport fares and expenses would eat up their savings.

Secondly, there are lots of foreign male workers who are out there preying on these young maids and the maids may just fall for them. Then when they got pregnant. They would have to be sent back. Or worst still, accused their employers of rape... etc. Though it can be proven easily, the hassle of having to go to the police station, the legal proceedings will give you hell.

Thirdly, they start to compare amongst themselves how good their employers were and eventually, they believe they are under paid, over worked and exploited by their employers. They start do develop plans against their employers.

There could be more problems certainly. Off days are not solutions for their welfare. I would suggest to employers, if possible, bring them outings with the family on weekends. Treat them like one of us. Allow them to wake up a little later on Sundays, don't have to cook or do household chores on Sundays. Eat out on weekends and allow something like light duties on weekends. Reward them with bonuses or ang pows. Buy them some clothes, etc

Put it simply, you must know what are they doing and they should kept within sight. Very Happy

oxford mushroom SG

They are only your employees, not your daughters! Who gives you the right to decide how they should behave and what to do with their money?

No wonder we deserve to live in a nanny state

theditz SG

it reminds me of the chinese imperial court where the chen3 or officials bow respectfully and submissively to their emperor and then taking it out on the palace maids and eunuchs

Archirodon SG

I bet you fellows are just too naive to understand what is like when you are faced with maids who create problems like run away, make false police reports on rape, got pregnant with male foreign workers, etc

I guess that's a good thing as well. You better don't employ maids then because you can't manage them. Stay that way then, its good for both parties. Laughing

DriftingGuy SG

Yes. Much as I hate to agree with you, what you say is true. My family has a very long history of employing maids... filipinos, sri lanka indonesians.. we tried them all..

And all of them do not have the self-discipline to do whats right unfortunately

I-like-flings(m) SG

if u look at the pay in indo... so it's Damn alot to be earning 250 per mth in sg.... Would you accept a job with only one day off a month if u are paid 10K?? i know i would... u? Mr. Green

Archirodon SG

Certainly, a military officer in Indonesia is considered a "big job". A equivalent of a Major is only paid about S$150 per month. The maids are earning more than a Major.

Treat the maids well, this in my opinion is most important. Very Happy

Aphrael SG

i agree with oxford mushroom that maids are employees, and not daughters and as such, there is a limit to what we can control.

However, even employers in all industries demand certain behaviour and standards from employees, i,e, integrity, diligence etc.

The nature of a maid's job is all the more complicated because she lives with the family, and also takes care of the young children. I'm sure employers wouldn't want a promiscuous maid/liar to interact with children. So we impose our own set of expectations on the maid, which should be humanely reasonable, of course.

Problems almost always occur in inter-personal relationships, and it sometimes is up to the individual maid & employer to build a trustworthy relationship that is based on mutual respect, and not ill-treatment and abuse of the maid or vice versa.

That said, going back to the original topic in this thread, one day off a month is really an indication of how "fair" employment laws really are in Singapore.
A more humane and fair (across all industries) ould be one day off in a week. And if, like what some people are concerned about, like maids getting in trouble (which is very true), perhaps a more stringent set of rules can apply to maids with such historical "records"?