SINGAPORE: Issues relating to foreign domestic workers have cropped up again in the country judging from cases of abuse including employers being victims, according to recent reports.
Last month, a court fined a woman S$12,500 for instructing two of her daughter’s maids to help her chilli-paste and cleaning businesses.
The same penalty was handed out to the defendant’s daughter for abetting her, said the ChannelNewsAsia portal.
It quoted Manpower Ministry prosecutor Jason Chua as saying that the accused was guilty of contravening the Employment of Foreign Manpower Regulations, which state that foreign domestic workers can perform only household and domestic duties.
Last month, a court was told that a maid served the family she was working for rice and water mixed with some of her urine, saliva and menstrual blood in the belief that they would not scold her for her work performance.
She stole S$17,000 from her employer between August 2017 and June 2018. For that, a court handed her a jail sentence of six months and seven weeks, said The New Paper.
This month, videos showing a domestic helper crying and packing up her belongings after she was allegedly kicked out of home by her employer had gone viral.
Police told the Stomp portal that they were alerted to a case of voluntarily causing hurt against a domestic worker at 1.30pm.
A witness told the Lianhe Wanbao newspaper: “During her time working here, (the maid) often complained to me about being hungry and having to go without food whenever she did something wrong or ate without her employer’s permission.”
A 2017 report said, foreign domestic workers make up 7 per cent of Singapore’s total and 17 per cent of the foreign workforce, with an estimated one in three households reliant on them for housekeeping and caring duties.
They come to here to work for economic reasons, to support their family back in their home country, to send their children to school and/or to save for the future.