All About Full-Time Maids

[Yuna_chan]

Name: Sugiyanti (Yanti for short)

DOB: 02/02/1980
WP No.: 0 06034659

When she first joined our family to look after my in-law’s granny, we thought she was a very caring and considerate person. She did her household chores very well and she was very fast and efficient. The best part was everybody in the family liked her. She was very conversational and her English was very good for an Indonesian.

It appeared that things were too good to be true. Things started to happen when granny was alone with her during the daytime. (I disagree leaving a helper alone with an elderly but the decision was not up to me) :
1. Granny had a bad fall which fractured her hip. She couldn’t be operated due to her old age and had to rely on painkiller forever!
2. Granny started getting bruises on her forearm. When asked what happened, she said she don’t know.
3. Doctor diagnosed that granny was malnutrition. If granny refused to take dinner, she will only get to eat the following day during breakfast.
4. Granny fell and had a deep cut on her head when she brought granny out.
5. Granny had a deep cut on her left arm during shower.
5. Granny had another cut on her right arm when the arm got caught in the wheelchair.

Whether it was accidental or intentional. Despite the above, my in-laws still wanted to keep her.

Slowly, things started to get missing. Useful household stuff and my personal stuff
1. Wooden Spatula
2. Porcelain pot for cooking tonic
3. Microfiber floor rub from 6 pieces to 4 pieces
4. Brand new skirt
5. She even poured my toiletries inside small bottles for her personal use.
6. etc

To make matters worse, she was given the authority to ‘run’ the household. Eventually, she got involved in our family matters and caused our family members to fall out with each other. It took us a great deal of planning to get rid of her.

Word of advise:

1. Never, ever leave your vulnerable elderly and children alone with a helper no matter how reliable she seems.
2. Never give too much freedom or authority to a helper.
3. Install CCTV as deterrent and a record when things happen.
4. Never, ever involve a helper in family affairs. (not even letting the helper hear the content of the discussion).

I would love to write to MOM to ban her, but I am not her employer. Is there any other way I can do to ban her from coming to SG?

[Hsparkle]

Kindly advice on this matter,

Our filipino transfer maid put demands such as every Sunday when it is not her off day we must take her out to eat ,or else we send her back to agency, we already decided to and booked her tickets for oversea travel with us since very small kids and we needed help. she start acting all these things only after she came to know tickets have been booked. Also threaten us that she will leave the work if she is not happy . So the scenario changed as she knew we already book her ticket, instead she work towards making us happy we have to make her happy so we don’t lose air ticket charges, or charges for getting another maid. When I refuse to meet her demands she start to do weird things like eat like pig 5 to 6 slices of bread for her breakfast , double rice than what she eat before etc and also sometimes wear clothes which are totally unacceptable in a family. Although we took her for counseling to agent and myself also tried to make her understand that only person who will gain is the agent as her loan is unpaid she give us black face. Finally after deciding to transfer her out she suddenly comes and says , "can I finish my loan first and then leave your house?
Question is should we trust her and continue to save the cost or just throw her out to agency? Even though we do not not take her along for our holiday we still need to pay her lodging charges to agency until she find another employer , and also the air ticket cancellation charges not to forget the cost going to be incurred by us for getting another replacement. What would any other person in our place do? Why are the MOM rules never helping a miserable employer whom these maid threaten and bully and when we try to tell her anything just one answer " sir I want to go back my agency"
Thank you

[joy.031533faith]

Let her finish her loan with you, then send her straight home not to agency. This type of maid with such bad attitude should be made to restart her whatever months’ loan all over again. They all think as long as I don’t like my work, my employer, just transfer lor. They should be taught a hard lesson so that they don’t play a fool next time.

[moonee]

Play her out since shes such a dmanding arrogant person. Tell her u will keep her but of course no promises if she continue such behaviour. U can hold hr a while then let her transfer and pay an extra 2 months. Why help her clear her loan and she say goodbye after that. if u keep her too long dont expect her to change… as time go by she may get worse so I personally would start looking and if the so called right one comes along then give her the boot. Dont trust her, she may want a free holiday and will come up with the same threats again. u may have to loose some money but better to be stress free. Anyway theres no guarantee anyone can keep maid till contract or loan ends. Things just happen along the way.

[POA Teacher]

For me, since you won’t be taking her for the holiday, I would take this opportunity to transfer her out.


If you wait till her loan is paid up, you will probably have to go without a maid for some time.

If the agent manages to get her a new employer while you are away, you can get a new maid sooner?

As for her loan, it really does not make any difference to her. She will pay off the remaining loan from the salary from new employer. It only makes a difference if she returns home instead of getting a transfer.

[Hiaweh]

Why let such arrogant and demanding maids transfer? Just send her home after her loan if you want to help her but that’s the most I would do. If you let her transfer she will cause trouble with the next employer.


I see a lot of people complaining of troublesome maid but it is because a lot let all these "trouble" circulate in Singapore.

So to save yourself and the next person the "trouble" send her home.

If I want to bring maid for holiday I wouldn’t tell her ahead of time. Just let her know a few days in advance for her to pack and inform her family. That’s what I did with my previous maid.

[Hsparkle]

Thank you all for your above replies,

based on what we gathered from you all an our decision we made is to transfer her, since the agent told us we cannot send her back as the loan is unpaid. Although we try to argue that as per MOM rules we can get the refund of the loan. The agent comes up with a new story that this maid is having a police case with previous employer and as per legal rules she cannot leave Singapore. :stupid: So unfortunately this trouble will be passed on to another kind soul who will fork out money for her just to lose it ? Oh my God I really wish MOM hear our cries and pain and consider the employer also a human being and give us some rights too!
When asked the agent to show us another transfer maid ,they say no one is

Available yet and keep forcing us to bring a fresh maid with new loan. This cycle seems like never ending. And it was the damn agent who asked us to ask the maid whether she want to follow us for holiday , is there any such rule? We thought no harm lah since she is a very nice person but this nice person turned into our nightmare. Just posting so that people also know our experience and not fall into agent trap. :stompfeet just before half an hour our maid again threaten us saying if we want to transfer her she don't want to wait and work until we go on holiday after one week but we must send her back tomorrow itself and pay for her lodging fees, can u imagine , don't even want to give us any notice or time to find another person , and when we work in office can just walk off like that?

[moonee]

The agent is suppose to inform u that shes having a"police case" b4 they recommended her to u. If they did not then they cheated u by hiding the truth, i would hv told my agent off if I found out that they did not reveal something serious before employing her, tell them off for being dishonest and ask the maid whether she really is under police charges.

[Hsparkle]

moonee:

The agent is suppose to inform u that shes having a\"police case\" b4 they recommended her to u. If they did not then they cheated u by hiding the truth, i would hv told my agent off if I found out that they did not reveal something serious before employing her, tell them off for being dishonest and ask the maid whether she really is under police charges.

The maid said its true about the case , when ask the agent she say that it's the maid who is complaining so the case is against the previous employer and not the maid. But we told agent that whatever the case they could have inform us. They say you need someone urgently so we transfer it to you. A lame excuse on their part.
We told the maid she can work here and also go holiday with us and like what you say we decided to play her out , since she give us no choice. The very last day transfer her out and let her lose another 2 months pay with new employer. Think she deserve it.
she spill some more beans trying to prove herself nice to me and say the agent is cheating us as when you chose me that time there were 5 more transfer girls but the agent ask them not to agree to work if by chance we give them a surprise visit any day.

[moonee]

Hsparkle:

moonee:

The agent is suppose to inform u that shes having a\"police case\" b4 they recommended her to u. If they did not then they cheated u by hiding the truth, i would hv told my agent off if I found out that they did not reveal something serious before employing her, tell them off for being dishonest and ask the maid whether she really is under police charges.

The maid said its true about the case , when ask the agent she say that it's the maid who is complaining so the case is against the previous employer and not the maid. But we told agent that whatever the case they could have inform us. They say you need someone urgently so we transfer it to you. A lame excuse on their part.
We told the maid she can work here and also go holiday with us and like what you say we decided to play her out , since she give us no choice. The very last day transfer her out and let her lose another 2 months pay with new employer. Think she deserve it.
she spill some more beans trying to prove herself nice to me and say the agent is cheating us as when you chose me that time there were 5 more transfer girls but the agent ask them not to agree to work if by chance we give them a surprise visit any day.

U hv something against the agent now, looks like they cant wait to get rid of her. I wouldnt employ a maid if she has a case against the employer as I may be her next victim. Dont keep her till the last day cos ur doing the agent and her a favour. Think u better start looking for a replacemet and return this troblesome maid after yr trip. Tell yr agent in ur own way that u can lodge a complain cos they were not upfront about her background and thats a serious
Wah! and still dare to charge for next maid. The agent probably had many rejections when they mentioned police case to other prospective employers and decided not to tell u, tell ur maid her chances for a transfer is very slim due to her report, who knows, she may cook up another story about you to the cops. U may hv to give her time off etc.. if cops call on her for further investigation and u probably got to bring her to the station or court if the ist employer engage a lawyer. Her work will be affected too. So my advice is get another maid and tell ur agent they are legally wrong not to highlight the most important thing about her case and they should and must replace this maid at no extra charge cos u would not hv taken this maid if u knew she had a case pending. Now I know why ur maid is so arrogant, she thinks she has the upperhand after making a police report.