Maid to get weekly rest days

[daranic]

happy to be mum:

I am okay to give every Sundays off as I have given my previous maid that and PH too...but with this new rulings, there will be loopholes when not good maids will be asking for compensation when they \"purposely\" don't want to go out on their days off. To me, days off = not at the place of work, that is your home. You think maid will feel comfortable to have days off at your home, during nothing and you cook and wash up?

I have this evil idea. :evil:

Cos of cost, I give her weekly off. If she doesn't want to go out so as not to spend $, then fine, stay at home and do nothing. But cos she stays home to eat, use water, electricity, my service to wash her dishes. Then please pay me for that. Fair?

Everything MOM works out is in favour for the maid. When does MOM consider for us employers!!!!!

[Power Puff]

Again, MOM, with its usual high-handed measures. If it really means well for the maids, there shouldn’t even be any mention of monetary compensation. REST DAY must = REST DAY. Not opprtunity to make more money. As it is already happening now, some maids would rather stay home and get higher income or if they have good friends outside, moonlight as part-timers at otehr employers’ homes. For those who want quick and easy cash, you know where they would head to. I understand the need for an off day. But MOM must put policies in place to protect employers and ensure the maids don’t do anything to breach the contract. I’m not a private investigator. Where do I finf the time and energy to trace whether my maid would find her bfriend or moonlight elsewhere?? Why talk about Singapore as "one of the very few destination countries for a weekly rest day for them, making the country less attactive, compared to HK and Taiwan’ when Singapore imposes maid levies and employers pay huge upfront fees and maids’ loans…This is baseless comparison… Unless ALL things including maid related fees and loans and what-nots are the SAME in all the countries, MOM cannot make such a comparison.


I’m all for the weekly rest day (I will get to choose the day that suit MY family of course) but I would appeal to MOM to make it illegal for maids to work elsewhere. Harsher penalties must be imposed on errant maids…If they do anything stupid, have to leave the country at their OWN expense and work permit cancelled with immediate effect…no such thing as getting a transfer and happily moving on to work for another clueless family. If I heard my previous maid correctly, she had to pay for her loan before she went to work in Taiwan…and no transfers to another family allowed unless she paid for that transfer and if she wanted to quit, she had to pay for her own air ticktet back…I should have dug out for more info at that time. So I’d say MOM, please PUBLISH in the ST a table comparing all the above.

I can only imagine that some maids under the current contract would try (especially if they have a network of friends and relatives here) to negotiate for increment or off days and if they cannot get what they want, would resort to tactics to get their employer to transfer them out, hopefully to a kind expat family. I should know…my family’s maid left her alone for a few weeks when they went back for a holiday…she became pregnant by a foreign worker who was working and living on site one of the houses being renovated…That maid was also quite enterprising, helping other maids sell and swap things (I don’t know WHOSE) and making a little profit on her off days.

There are certainly good and sensible helpers, I don’t deny. I just wish there are more laws to protect us employers, just like there are laws and contracts protecting our own employers. Not all employers treat their helpers like what you read in Cinderalla. I make sure we all treat my maid with respect, and that she gets to eat well. If not for my very young kids, I would have preferred to employ a part-time local to do the household chores and dispense with all that trouble of having a foreign helper and free up her room.

[Funz]

happy to be mum:

You think maid will feel comfortable to have days off at your home, during nothing and you cook and wash up?

To me that is their problem.

You are given the day off, why should I pay you just because you would rather stay in as going out means spending money.

If you don't feel good about me doing the cooking and washing up, and decide to pitch in, then thank you very much, I will still not pay you for that day but that attitude will go a long way when I decide your bonus.

But if I should specifically request that you stay home and help cos I have something on, then I will pay you for that day.

[POA Teacher]

Btw, my maid's reaction was: wah, now like HK, Sunday must go out. Don't want, how?

Don't want to go off, the maam must pay extra?
I told her NO, maid gets extra only if maam asks the maid to work on the day off.

......... But, problem is, many maams & maids will think must pay :stupid:

[Peace Charlie]

Before this news was out, jus last sun my new helper of 5 mths requested to stay at home rather to follow us to my mom’s place and requested to rest. but in the end she went out shopping for an hour in the so call contract, its rightfully no off day but I just think that being kind to her let her rest at home.


Also to my shock, she daringly used my girl’s hp to call home mostly in the early am whereby we are all out for work or school… when my girl asked her she does not feel guilty at all and answer no she did not use the HP… and we have to pay for her phone bill which I had already bought the international calling card for her usage every monthly to let her call home.So what kind of character are that, do u all think we should trust them with four weekly off days and just wat had happen the latest news with the helper being mudered!

[qms]

verykiasu2010:

jtoh, can I apply to be your maid ?

:yikes: :idea: Please submit your cv to jtoh.

verykiasu2010:

I promise not to have hand phone, not to have boy friend, not to bring them back to your house,

Verykiasu2010.....

verykiasu2010:

I promise to be good good. Can ?

So far, you have not proven to be good good in KSP.com leh, so how to trust you?

[autumnbronze]

qms:

verykiasu2010:

jtoh, can I apply to be your maid ?

:yikes: :idea: Please submit your cv to jtoh.

verykiasu2010:

I promise not to have hand phone, not to have boy friend, not to bring them back to your house,

Verykiasu2010.....

verykiasu2010:

I promise to be good good. Can ?

So far, you have not proven to be good good in KSP.com leh, so how to trust you?

:rotflmao: :rotflmao: Super funnae !!!

[verykiasu2010]

qms:

verykiasu2010:

jtoh, can I apply to be your maid ?

:yikes: :idea: Please submit your cv to jtoh.

verykiasu2010:

I promise not to have hand phone, not to have boy friend, not to bring them back to your house,

Verykiasu2010.....

verykiasu2010:

I promise to be good good. Can ?

So far, you have not proven to be good good in KSP.com leh, so how to trust you?

eh eh, I very good 2 u leh ........ never ah q with you, never use the phone, never use your make up / paint, never go out and kena caught, never ...... never ...... never ........

[mgnvr]

LOLMum:

bellethajah:

[quote=\"mgnvr\"]I am curious. If I give my maid 4 days off a week, does this mean I get to deduct from her pay? Or currently paying her $430 without day off. After renewal next year, it will be $430 minus $80?


Just trying to understand the new system. Is my calculation wishful thinking? :roll:

I think it will be $430+$80 :).

Are you paying the maid 430 now?

If yes, when renewing the contract next year, let's say you increase her salay to 450, then it is 450 per month plus 4 days off.

If you want her to work on her day off, you need to pay her for that day.[/quote]Then it's as good as a $100 increment per mth.

[JGMum]

zmonster1969:

With all maids granted a day off by 2015, industry players said there is a need to ramp up social services for such workers.

Ms Tan explained: \"Foreign workers, when they have a day off, they do not have many places to go. So when they congregate in numbers in certain locations of Singapore, it does cause a lot of concern to the people around.

\"This is where I would like the ministry to address this issue of looking into social amenities, support services, places where foreign workers can go to recreate, learn, places where they can pursue healthy activities during their days off.\"
---
And they even want the gahmen to take good care of the maids during their day off so that they stay out of trouble. And this really irks me. :mad:

No, no, taxpayers' money should always go towards looking after our own Singapore citizens FIRST.
I have no objection to having social amenities, support services, etc for foreign workers (including maids). But I too, do not think that MOM (or any gahmen ministry for that matter) should be the one to address this issue.
May I suggest that the various foreign worker advocacy groups build the amenities, organise and fund these activities and support services themselves. They seem to be really influential (to push through a policy with MOM this time), so they should have no problems raising the funds without asking for a slice of the pie from our limited national budget.