Should maids be given a day off every week?
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3Boys:
Goes to show how NOT in tune with society you are...SMH FOREST:
How MANY? It is more than you think im sure! Look at the service industry alone... how many people are working on wkends?? Check out showflats, expo fairs, hotels, retail industry, leisure industry, food industry... and many many more people who travel for work... single parents etc.
Make these employers the exception? Why must it be them who are the exception and NOT others like you, the able employer who can afford off days, the exception?
I am not for such policy making, always thinking of the PERFECT scenario, when life is not so rosy and picture perfect for many other households. These are households that already have issues on the \"normal wkends\" for regular people, so why make it a further stress for them and have them be EXEMPTED from the so called law and policy that you recommend? And how to implement exception? Make them go to Meet the People session and ask MP to write letter to MOM... and then MOM have the discretion to decide to approve or not?? Com'on... the perfect household that can afford off days have it easy... pls make life easier for these families who are under your so-called exception...
Completely DISagree with you.
The caregivers in our parent's day had far less resources at their disposal than we do today. Up till now, the number of households with maids is the MINORITY of Singaporean households, and I bet they are over-represented by the less well off.
Are they better able to manage the weekends and off times than others? They are as busy as anyone else, probably with lesser flexibility with hours. How many of those cashiers at NTUC, those manning stalls on weekends, cooks, have their own live in maids? A MINORITY, I bet, and they manage, don't they?
We have gotten so used to having a person waiting hand and foot that we have forgotten how to work schedules, do with less and compromise. That is the whole issue.
The number of households with live-in-maids in Singapore is in the minority, and the proportion of those who require 7-day a week cover, an even smaller minority still.
Go speak with more people... even a Chef at a hotel also need to work weekends. Hotel banquet manager also need to work wkends. Property agents manning showflats need to work wkends. Enrichment centre teachers/assistants/administrators also need to work wkends. Are these ppl in your so-called less well off category?? Even the food court aunty who mans the mixed veg rice stall have a maid and she works wkends too!
And all of the above, are people I know and met and spoke with... and these are the few examples I've quoted out of the MANY MANY scenarios.
PLEASE... stop thinking that all maid employers are only 5 days working adults, and works in offices only! The perfect situation you are in is not the ONLY scenario to consider in this maid-employer issue. -
Flower Power:
I agree with this too!!verykiasu2010:
these days it is the employers who are exploited by the maids and the agencies
out of the few hundred thousand maids in singapore, how many are abused and work round the clock ?
have some sense of proportion first
I totally agree on this. Our maids system here seems to be penalising heavily on employers. In addition to paying hundreds of dollars for agency fees, insurance, runaway bond etc, we have to pay a few thousand dollars of upfront loan for the maid. Finally the maid is here, she can come to your home for just one day and tell you the next day she wants to go back to agency. Tell me, what can the employer do? In reality nothing much if she really wants to do so. The maids now know they can make use of our system and also use the employer to first bring them into Singapore. Then they ask for a transfer to slowly select their preferred employers face-to-face once they get back to the agency. Now that they are already in Singapore, the world is theirs :rahrah:
Nowadays fresh or EX-SIN equally \"bad\". Fresh ones with zero experience, dont know how to do any household chores also \"ga-ga\" come to SG and earn strong SGD (S$400-450). EX-SIN worse, think that they now have a couple of years exp in SG so can demand this and that and also want top salary. Unfortunately, their no. of years in SG does not equate to that they being good in their chores. I totally agree that this industry is truely rotten. Why does MOM appears to be oblivious of such ill practices?!
And that is exactly what happened to me... maid asking to go back to agent on Day 2!!!!! -
I had deliberately taken time to visit maid agencies, observe, talk to the agencies, staff, hear what they talk, how they talk, observe their body language, I do understand Malay language…understand their practice, why they do certain practices eg limitless replacement of maids within 24 months, employers not allowed to repatriate the maid, must be sent back to agencies, etc all these recent developments is tilting the "balance of power" (if any) to the agencies who are controlling the maid.
Like I shared a few posts earlier, the agencies openly encourage and facilitate the maids to job hop and go back to them. Wicked !
Does Hamimah Yaakub go visit the maid agencies and observe and also go talk to families with maids’ issues to understand what is rotting in the industry ? -
verykiasu2010:
I had deliberately refused to answer some posts, and only chose to make general remarks. Nothing personal if readers do not take it personal. There are many families who can't cope without a maid and many maids do give problems to employers, and some are made worse by agencies who are out to milk the system
yipe, as long as there is no names mentioned in the post, one should not take it personally - dont 对号入座。 -
LOLMum:
exactly !verykiasu2010:
I had deliberately refused to answer some posts, and only chose to make general remarks. Nothing personal if readers do not take it personal. There are many families who can't cope without a maid and many maids do give problems to employers, and some are made worse by agencies who are out to milk the system
as long as there is no names mentioned in the post, one should not take it personally - dont 对号入座。 -
verykiasu2010:
and U give us a break too ! and who are you to tell us we do not need a maid ?? u are not my father
![](\"http://i51.tinypic.com/2me7h2b.jpg\")
http://i51.tinypic.com/2me7h2b.jpg\"> .. cool down vk2010..or u need an fire extinguisher.
...
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vlim:
:censored: :censored: :censored: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:verykiasu2010:
and U give us a break too ! and who are you to tell us we do not need a maid ?? u are not my father
...
ok, fire put out, you all can return to the DSA thread now .... :evil: :evil: -
verykiasu2010:
all right man..lets go!!! :dancing: :dancing: :dancing:vlim:
...
:censored: :censored: :censored: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:
ok, fire put out, you all can return to the DSA thread now .... :evil: :evil: -
See, what we are sharing is reality - and to be honest SMH and myself are not the only ones, my colleague and her cousin kena such "one-day" maids too. Surely there is no coincidence. Many of these maids share information and learn from each other how to work around the loopholes.
And now we get some strange comments like "You die die must have a maid, that you are willing to endure hell and highwater? Your husband and kids can’t chip in with housework, you can’t uncomplicate your life by shedding some enrichment classes on the weekend? I mean, no one can FORCE you to have a maid if you don’t want to, right?" Whahahaa… Of course, if we do not wish to be held ransom while at the same time have the privilege of having other options, well of course we can to choose stay out of this lousy system. But does that make the system a better one? I am afraid not, it just show how bad things can be that you want OUT! -
I too disagree with giving maids off-day once weekly. With a hectic work schedule and also having to bring home work to do, I desperately need that weekend break! Not just for myself, but also to spend more bonding time with my young kids. If my maid goes on off every weekend, means I gotta \"bao-ka-liao\" all the miscellaneous housechores on that day, like that whr got energy to play with my kids
To think that Halimah Yacob encourages SAHMs to go back to workforce, if her proposal were to succeed, I think would end up encouraging more SAHMs to stay home.
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