SINGAPORE: A domestic helper from Indonesia ran away after working for her employer for just two weeks despite being treated well by the family.
In an anonymous post to a Facebook group for domestic helpers, her employer wrote in asking for advice on how to find her maid as the latter attended Tiberias Church in Marriot Orchard and never returned after her day off. In her post, the woman wrote that she was angry at herself for being too nice and trusting of her maid. “I asked her what type of pillow she preferred and my mother took her to choose and purchase her toiletries. We offer her everything we bought ourselves, paid for her SIM and her EZ-link card”, she added.
In her post, the employer wrote that the maid “never disclosed her inability to stand or walk for more than 15 minutes…She (the maid) is 158cm and 105kg (as per her medical), and while I didn’t discriminate it, it meant she couldn’t actually squat to bathe my father hence I did it. She’d sit while cooking, clean for a bit then sit. She wasn’t the most efficient nor did she take much initiative but we looked past it. There was no restrictions to her phone use either”.
She also added that her family was very patient with the helper. The family would share their food with the helper to the point where the latter would help herself to the food in the house and often eat before the family. When the maid was reluctant to cook, she would keep leftovers and insist her employer eat them. “When asked to cut fruit for my father, she would take a portion for herself without asking. She had used a cooking pot to clean kitchen shelves and windows and yet my mother would correct her calmly”, the employer added.
The maid was hired to care for her employer’s father who had undergone a foot operation. She was to help with the cooking, and cleaning and assist him with showering until he was better.
On her 10th day in her employer’s house, “she woke up at 7am insisting I send her to MOM and back that day itself. She insisted on only speaking to an Indonesian although she speaks good English. I asked she give me a few days, I finally had a breather with my dad finally back, she said no. She had to leave that day itself”.
“After hours of crying, she changed her mind and said she would stay at 2pm. When asked if it was her official date of notice, she said no, she wanted to stay for her 2 year contract. She wrote a letter to confirm this. She said she was stressed from being away, tired as she hadn’t worked during COVID and asked to take that day off to sleep and rest and I agreed. At midnight on Thursday, my father had difficulty breathing. The ambulance was called in and she was left to sleep. My mother and I handled everything since it was her time off work”. Two days later, on her day off, the maid ran away and never returned.
“She has since replied to my text messages claiming she has left Singapore however to cancel her work permit with MOM I need to show she has left. The investigating officer hasn’t come back to me either, so it’s just been an unnecessarily stressful day. My goal is not to get her into trouble or to have her black listed but to find her, and deport her if she’s still in Singapore”, the woman wrote in her post, asking others if they knew where the helper was.
Here’s what others in the group said:
Last year, a 24-year-old Filipino maid ran away after being with her employers for four months. In an anonymous post to Facebook group FDW in Singapore (working conditions forum), her employers wrote that she ran away to HOME, the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics.
The employers added that she had been “very turned off most of the time when with us and cannot remember things or take instructions. She is 24 year old Filipino, yet cannot understand English well”.
In their post, they wrote that after running away two months ago, the maid had been posting on social media about her days off on Sundays instead of searching for another employer.