All About Full-Time Maids

[hugeclaw]

Have a friend who doesn’t speak English well and seek help from to deal with this U***** Home agency at katong. Since Apr 08, this agency has been providing her with lousy indo maids, either steal things or doesn’t have personal hygiene (so bad that the entire family has food poisoning). After 3 switches, she decided to change agency for ‘better’ luck. Thus, she requested the agency to pay back the insurance amt for the 3 maids which is abt $500. Till now, she haven’t got back a single cent despite the insurance company told her that the amt has been settled and returned to the agency, but the person-in-charge from agency has been telling her the amt is pending for approval from the insurance company.

Such a pain, think we’ve to seek help from CASE to deal with them.

[JHJC]

Hi Hugeclaw

Tamarid is right, its better to go Small Claim Tribunal… go AEAS… tough.
They are overwork?.. they told me they had many cases on hand per day and needed give agency to response. In any case, they cannot take any action against agency as they are not legal entity???

I have for my case went to MOM, AEAS and SCT. The one that responded fastest with specific action plan is SCT.

[kai]

we just go to admit that in Singapore.. they protect the foreign domestic workers more den the employers.. geesh.. i had my fair share of a runaway maid before and guess wat.. its my very first maid den.. i got her 2 months prior to my EDD so to give her time to adapt to the surroundings & prepare herself for the arrival of the lil one BUT 2 weeks later.. she ran away one fine evening before I came bac from work.. she ran away to a place called HOME - a shelter for so called abused maid.. was darn angry coz i was so heavily pregnant & stil had to go around settling the whole issue.. she accused us of not giving her food & over working.. oh pls.. the whole darn house is empty from 8am to 7pm daily & only me and my hubby in the household & she said over worked!! goodness gracious!!! :stupid: anyway to cut the story short.. MOM made me pay for her air ticket to go back & reason being she DUN WANNA work here anymore!!! FOS!!!


i blacklisted her with the help of my agent.. from this incident.. i learnt a lesson.. IF a maid comes along & decides she does not wanna work anymore and request to be sent back to her country.. we JUST have to do so for her.. no protection on our side.. :x

[hugeclaw]

After a long week of dealing with these statutorial boards, I agree that SCT is the most friendly to deal with. Aiyo MOM is hopeless, does not have a clue on what to advice, keep saying it’s fair to give the agency time to process the necessary documents for the refund. :x Now with the help of SCT, hopefully can hear some news by end of this week.


I totally agree with Kai, MOM makes it so difficult for employers to have the basic protection of guarding against these foreign maids. On one hand, the govt promotes domestic help so as to improve birth rates, but MOM’s rules and regulations discourage a lot of ppl to employ maids. Got a friend who’s maid boldly went to a gynae clinic for an abortion, lying to the doc that she has seek clearance from the employer to do so. In the end, my friend got a shock when the clinic called her to collect the maid after the surgery. You can expect how furious it can be when she brought her maid to the agency but the latter can do nothing. When she decided to send maid home, she realised that MOM insists that she has to pay for the expenses for expatration (on top of medical bills)! She sweared that she will not have a maid anymore…and warned us against letting the maids have too much freedom or restrict giving them any off day to prevent these incidents.

[kai]

haiz.. yeah tats the employer's fate if we do get a MAID like tat.. geesh.. but in actual fact after learning the lesson thru the hard way, i gathered getting a maid is really based on luck.. how often or not we get to know tat the biodata might not be accurate.. so now whenever my frens or colls ask me in ways to 'locate' a good maid thru biodatas.. my answer to them is count ur lady luck & oso if not good den jus change.. so simple.. dun keep a maid which does not help u but add on to ur woes

[JHJC]

My turn to update… for those staying in Hougang, beware… the agent that service me from Lxx Garden has been posted there.


After i sent the agency the letter from SCT… they continue to ignore me… ignore AEAS. Can you believe it… they can ignore ASEA and AEAS told me cannt do anything abt it… they issued them warning letter for not responding… so wht? they still ignore. I wonder what is the relevant than?

FYI, AEAS agreed there has been numerous complaints on this agency… and i wonder why there is no action taken? Base on contract,i still cannot cancel the maid’s work permit… can you believe i am paying levy and all for a maid that is with the agent since Jan?

My advise to all is, do not get discourage. I got motivation from "insider" advise. There are many loopholes in this system, we have take in our strike to address. Maybe we shld all contact a reporter to do an article on this. We are suffering too… and needed someone to raise a red flag!!!

[elle_yv.03429hotmail.03429com]

Hi Tamarind


Would like to hear from yr advise that if your maid telling lies by using yr hse phone to call her cousin & friends to chit chat during the day she is doing the hse cleaning. When i reach home & find something fishy that i check on the phone, and ask her why got so many strange no. & she lies & tell that her church friends call her.

And i ask her whether she call them or ppl call her & she lies by telling is her friends call up. :?:

[tamarind]

[email protected]:

Hi Tamarind


Would like to hear from yr advise that if your maid telling lies by using yr hse phone to call her cousin & friends to chit chat during the day she is doing the hse cleaning. When i reach home & find something fishy that i check on the phone, and ask her why got so many strange no. & she lies & tell that her church friends call her.

And i ask her whether she call them or ppl call her & she lies by telling is her friends call up. :?:

I have an ex-maid who used to do that too. It was very annoying. She gave my home telephone number to her boyfriends who sometimes call her at midnight ! I sent that maid away.

My new maids don't even know what is my home telephone number.

I think it is very difficult for your maid to change. If possible, lock your phone in the room so she cannot use it. Then she will probably talk on her mobile phone all day. At least you don't need to pay the phone bill.

[tamarind]

New updates ! Make sure you don't employ these maids !


http://singaporemaidcomments.blogspot.com/

[mintcc]

[quote]our maid telling lies by using yr hse phone to call her cousin & friends to chit chat during the day she is doing the hse cleaning. When i reach home & find something fishy that i check on the phone, and ask her why got so many strange no. & she lies & tell that her church friends call her. [/quote]
What I find easier to implement is to state clearly to the maid and make her agree to not using the house phone or owning a cell phone even before bringing her back from the agency. So it become part of the agreement if she wants to work for you.

Agree with tamarind that the maid probably won't change and you might need to get a new one. Had an ex maid who does that and chalk up my phone bills with calls too - turn out to be lots of strange men calling. Not giving the maid your home number or address is our policy too. In our case we got our agency to agree to use their address so that her family can send mail to her at the agency address.