All About Full-Time Maids

[Funx3]

Admummy:

nms1:

Not sure that you have the right to hold back her salary as the money you pay her on July 1st if for June salary so she has every right to be given it. Also if the POSB account is in her name you will have to close it before she leaves.


I understand that there is the possibility she has taken/will take something from you but imagine if you resigned from your job and your company held back money in case you'd stolen something - how would you feel?!

I would suggest that on the day she leaves, just before she packs, you tell her that your are going to check her luggage. Yes, she could send stuff back or give to someone else earlier but if she doesn't suspect that you will check then she may not.

nms1, thks, noted your point...i won't hold any of her money beyond 1st Jul since payment date for Jun's pay is by 1 Jul. It will be unfair to her if i do that...maybe i did not make myself clear, my point is if she leaves before 1 Jul, she has every right to take back all her money in the POSB account but not for Jun pay since it is not yet due for payment ...so she can withdraw all her savings excluding Jun pay (which i will remit to her on 1Jul) or i pay her before 1 Jul (maybe this week) so that she remits all her savings including Jun pay....the purpose of doing this is just like what hquek term it as \"bargaining chip\" to have something to hold on so that i have bargaining power, at least she will respect and behave \"for the sake of the remaining money...

the POSB account is a joint one with her, so I think should be able to close the account even after her departure? anyone please correct me ok...
I will definitely check her luggage but she's a clever woman, dun think she will hide it in her luggage...

i hope i'm not portraying a \"evil\" \"wicked\" employer here. i am not... i was the one who initiated the early release of her savings and Jun's pay, even offered to fly her directly back to Semarang instead of Jakarta or transit in Jakarta then Semarang...but look at how she treated me and my children lately....

so my tip for all employers, dun be too complacent until the last min... i only become paranoid because of the change in her attitude and performance ...

Don't think there's anything Dis-Honourable in Holding the Bonus Money until she Leave. afterall this is to Reward her for her full term of service, right till the Last Day.
I'll suggest giving the Final Bonus in Cash at the Airport to her.

This is Often Practice in the Industry for WP holders working for Private company, to deter them from MIS .... In Fact for not very trustworthy workers, PP is hand over to them at Airport as Well ....

[GarangMama]

Hi fellow mummies with maid issues,

My second maid requested for a transfer after 16months with us and after a very trying time, the transfer was done under very unhappy circumstances last May. She cited the reason that she wanted her own room - which to me was ridiculous as we have expressed told her I don’t have a maid’s room and she has to share the room with my 4 & 5yo sons. During her whole time with us, we have been very conscious of the fact to give her personal space and made sure my sons go to sleep at 9.30pm so that she can rest too. In addition she gets to enjoy air-con at night when we don’t even turn that on for ourselves.
As I was working full time then, and my sons are at full-day childcare, she practically have the whole house to herself during the day. I gave her quite a fair bit of autonomy since she has been here for 5 years prior to working with us and is rather independent. We have never reprimanded her nor questioned her activities in the day, as long as she does not do anything illegal, brings ppl home and make sure all chores required are done. Really all she does is to keep the house and cook. And I thought with all these liberties, we would have been fair towards her.
After 12 months with us, we opened a joint account for her, in it was the mandatory $500 savings that her agent made her put aside for her airfare back if she didn’t complete her 2-year contract with us, plus a 13month bonus for her. We even gave her an increment of 5% (she started with S$400).
When she asked for the transfer, she picked the time to tell us when we just got back from our family holiday on a Friday night. I told her I need to discuss with my dh, and behold when she came back from her off on Sunday, she said she already had 2 interviews with expats who are interested to hire her. I was mad. Then came the harrassment from her agency to make us sign the transfer letter. All this while, I had not made any commitment to her about the transfer and her agency had already made arrangements. As much as I was upset, I was thinking about her career and commitments at home so I relented. But I told her she has to be fair to us and give us a month to make adjustments as my dh and I had work travels all planned the following 3 weeks. And since she has engaged another agency to handle her case, I told her I will only deal with her since technically I didn’t hire the agency. But the harrassments still came.
Meanwhile her attitude got from bad to worse. One of my house rules was no mobile phones when we are at home - when we are not, I don’t really care since I am not there. My rationale was: my family is at home for less than 5hrs on weekdays surely there is enough time for them to yak on the phone in the day! Already after 12months with us, she has been ‘disappearing’ to the toilet/wash area for long stretches of time when we are at home - started with 20min, then got longer and longer. One time i deliberately timed and it was 45min. At first I thought she was feeling unwell/bathing. But she came out not changed nor looked any worse. There are always hustling in the toilet and talking. This led to her blatantly charging her 2 mobile phones in plain sight, and she was sms-ing between her chores.
In Aug last year, we got a call from MOM stating that she lodged a complaint that we withheld her pay. Given that she was the one asking for the transfer and had not completed her 2-year contract with us, I had taken back some of the benefits that we had accorded her during her employment:
- My maid was given EVERY Sunday off. Despite of that, she asked for additional day offs in the week to send off her friends/church camps/etc. I prorated those days and deducted from her pay.
- Her increment from 13th month onwards
- in her 3rd month with us, she mentioned that she felt lumps in her breast and insisted we take her to see a female doc. I had to search and take time off. The doc examined her and said nothing serious about it, given her age and background. But the maid insisted on doing an ultrasound/mammogram (I can’t remember) which I paid in good faith. she also made us buy EPOs for her though doc say it’s not necessary.
- Whilst waiting for her transfer to be finalised, we received the request for medical examination from MOM for her. We told her that since she will be transferred out, she should do it on her off day and her new employer/agency should undertake that. Imagine my surprise when the confirmation letter from MOM stated that she did her medical exam without our permission on a Tue - I still have the letter with me and till today I am puzzled how did she managed to get this done without her papers (her passport and work permit were with me) and (1) can docs do medical exam on a FDW without proper papers and (2) how did this get accepted by MOM?
I am very upset with this whole matter and felt totally helpless that our laws do not protect employers who had not only fulfilled our contractual obligation towards the FDWs and had in fact gone beyond that on several instances. To make matters worse, the MOM officer’s attitude towards us was very rude - he did not even bother to try and understand our issues and kept saying we have no right to claim back from the maid. This despite that the maid had signed an undertaking that she was clear what were the calculations and has no $$ issues when we paid her the pro-rated salary and whatever’s left of her deposit.
Whilst I can understand laws are there to protect them from abuses - afterall they need more of that since they are the ones leaving their country to work for a livelihood here. But surely for employers who have gone beyond their responsibilities should be given some consideration too? And I felt very betrayed not only with the goodwill and consideration shown to her, but also by our own government. On one hand we are encouraged to go out and work, yet we are not protected when we need help at home.
I felt I was sucker-punched in the face when she told me that she has been hoping to work for an expat all along (her 2nd employer was an ABC but had to give her up cos contract expired to work here) and how all her aunties/friends have that intention. I had even seen photos of her and her friends living at large in big houses with pictures full of their expat’s families, wine glasses and good food when their employers are not around.
All I can say, is employers beware. I have learnt my lesson, and learnt that too well.
(sorry for the long ranting)

[nms1]

I’m very interested how she managed to do the medical without her work permit. Did she have any other form of ID? Did you report the doctor to MOM?

[SMH FOREST]

Actually, the clinics don’t check the WP… my prev maid also didnt have her WP every time she goes for her check-ups… she only have to bring the MOM letter to the clinic… but the first time we brought her to the clinic, what the clinic did request is for my hub to show his ID… to prove he is the employer…


In your maid’s instance, did she do the checkup at a clinic that she has visited before? Or did she go for the checkup using the new employer’s ID??

[SMH FOREST]

LKVM:

Admummy:

i hope i'm not portraying a \"evil\" \"wicked\" employer here. i am not... i was the one who initiated the early release of her savings and Jun's pay, even offered to fly her directly back to Semarang instead of Jakarta or transit in Jakarta then Semarang...but look at how she treated me and my children lately....


so my tip for all employers, dun be too complacent until the last min... i only become paranoid because of the change in her attitude and performance ...

Yes you are not evil.. you are just trying to play safe and you have every right for being so...

I fully agree on this... as we can see from many many cases... we employers are not protected by anyone... not by MOM and definitely not by the agencies! As such, we do have to protect ourselves in the most reasonable way possible...

[GarangMama]

nms1:

I'm very interested how she managed to do the medical without her work permit. Did she have any other form of ID? Did you report the doctor to MOM?

Honestly I have no idea. In the letter that MOM sent to confirm the transfer, only date of her medical exam was stated. When I tried to seek clarifications from the officer, his reply was: 'oh just like any of us who see a doc, there is no need to show these papers.' so i asked, 'what is the meaning of sending these paperwork to employers when the ministry does not even regard it's own process? what is the recourse for employers if maid is errant?' he just said maids are entitled to med exam just like we all are!! Then I asked how is it that the doc can examine the maid without proper documentation, he said it could be that the agency was sent another set of papers since the request for transfer is already in the system. Frankly I have lost faith in a system that seemed to favor outsiders more than it's citizens... :nunchuk:

[SMH FOREST]

cwc:

Think the filipino maids are more demanding. When I was searching for 1, interviewed indon, filip & myanmar. Myan cannot communicate & has very bad attitude. Fili is demanding. There is 1 transferred maid who was willing to take care of male elderly so I was keen. But then her question was like \"do I have a room to myself / how many people in the house / do I need to hand wash clothes\". Room NO, while there are 6 in my house, 90% washing machine, so her main task is basic chores & one elderly who was still mostly independent - just need to help bathe clean. My kids I take care cos I'm sahm. Guess what, she chose not to accept my job even tho she already kena sent back 3 times. Well, a few weeks later when I got my indon maid, she was still unemployed loh.

Yes...i also feel that fili are more demanding... even 1 of the agency that i spoke to who only deal with fili maids... agree with my comment. The impression though is that there are more filis who can speak english... so, thats the bargaining power that some of them have... but of cos, during my search, while interviewing them... i also found that there are filis that can't really speak english v well too... guess, there is no guarantee... and all about luck...

Wish good luck will descend upon me soon!! muahahahahah...

[GarangMama]

SMH FOREST:

Actually, the clinics don't check the WP... my prev maid also didnt have her WP every time she goes for her check-ups... she only have to bring the MOM letter to the clinic.. but the first time we brought her to the clinic, what the clinic did request is for my hub to show his ID.. to prove he is the employer...


In your maid's instance, did she do the checkup at a clinic that she has visited before? Or did she go for the checkup using the new employer's ID??

I didn't send her so we suspect the agency arranged it. I wouldn't be surprised if the agencies have special tie-ups w docs in the same building for such cases...what I cannot accept is the onus MOM lay on employers yet allow such loopholes and then employers are held responsible when things fall through the cracks?
Needless to say, it didn't help when the officer was so flippant in his reply...to me he was like making a mockery out of the whole system.

[Awonder]

Hi, had an issue here with my new Indo maid for just 2 mths. She can do housework quite well and i can say that she is a cleanaholics, but so much so that we cannot tolerate at all cos she keep doing, washing, dusting, sweeping the whole day long and I dont really see her sit down and rest at all. It seems a good catch to hv such kind of maid but at the same time give us headarche also. She always do more than necessary and we find that it is very wasteful and sometimes had to accommodate her way too. But this is our house, not hers. She should suit our need and not the other way round.


Another frustrated thing is that she just refuse to follow my instruction due mainly to her stubborness and try to act smart. She is ex-sing and we had reminded her many times not to bring other habits that she had did in her previous employer into our home. Every family had their own way of doing things so I expect her to follow our way of handling things at home. I find that whenever things that need to instruct and teach, she can’t follow or just cannot remember, just like cooking. Maybe she think she can cook, but how when she can’t even try to remember how I prepare my dishes, how could I let her cook her own way.

Yesterday, was mad at her from morning till night. Her priority at home is to do housework and take care and keep a close watch on my 21 mths ds, but she tends to walk away often and do this do that again…told her many times but somehow just never get into her head. Teach her how to prepare pork chop and told her that she can use both hand to handle the pork while chopping and turning but as I was standing beside her, she seems like switch off and never listen and still just holding the knife and refuse to use the other hand, and when I ask her why she never follow my instruction, she said scare I do not like her to do that. You can imagine how frustrated I am. I was beside her telling her that she can use both hand and yet she can give me such reason. She had made me more mad than my kids. I always instruct her to soak the soup pot overnight so that it will be easier to wash the next day. After boiling for 2-3 hours, there will always be soup residue around the pot and its to prevent her from harsh washing and scratch my pot. But last night, she wash up all the stubborn stain and still soak it in water in the sink for washing up tomorrow. Well, I blow my top and I simply don’t know what to say. Either she is stubborn and act smart or did it on purpose. Her blank stare and attitude really disturb me.

At that moment I told my dh that I don’t want her anymore, but now still thinking hard as I do not want to act on impulse and change maid. She is my 2nd maid. Although my 1st maid did made mistakes also but she had never give me such headarche at all. You know, it make me very disturbed and not in peace, keep thinking about it the whole day. I dont like that at all, getting a maid is to relieve my workload and not to give me stress.

Hope to get some advice here whether should I keep her because of all this issues or give her 1 more chance. Thanks.

[Funx3]

GarangMama:

Hi fellow mummies with maid issues,

My second maid requested for a transfer after 16months with us and after a very trying time, the transfer was done under very unhappy circumstances last May....

GarangMama, I Empathise with your Plight ....

And Totally Agreed that MOM Rules R Pro-FW/ FDW, Against Employer.

Now ALL of them Know How to Held Employers Ransom .... by Simply Complaining to MOM that Employer Withheld their Money, etc ....
And Regard-less of what the Employer say, Even with Proof .... MOM will just revert to U that Give in to their Demand, Pay them Fully, Or Else ....

Have Long Given Up Talking to MOM ....
Best is to Pay Them, And Get Them Out of your Hair .... Cut Your Losses .... And Learnt the Lesson ....
:sad: :sad: