SINGAPORE: A heavily pregnant employer took to social media asking for advice when her maid wanted to be sent back to her home country just because she got scolded. The employer said that because of the advanced stage of her pregnancy, it would be a huge inconvenience to find another maid, not to mention a waste of all her money.
In an anonymous post to a Facebook support group for both helpers and employers alike, the employer wrote that her maid is a first-timer working in Singapore and that she was directly employed without an agent.
“Now is only her 3rd month and she already asking me to send her back to Indonesia because she said she is in shock that my husband scolded her 1TIME for not taking care of my daughter”, the employer wrote.
In the comments section, the woman explained that it was “just a 1 time incident where she left my daugther downstairs alone without any supervision n do work on level 2 and when my husband found out, she told him she was upstairs, thats what made my husband scolded her”.
In her post, she asked if she should buy her helper’s flight tickets and added that her maid did not know that the employer had to also pay for her insurance and medical check-up.
“For her to break the 2yrs contract bond, for the inconvenience caused i have to find for a new helper and start again from scratch when all my $$$ gone just like that bringing her in. What else can i claim from her?” the woman wrote.
She added: “I ardy spoke to her, she said ok she will stay till i finish gv birth and provided if sir gt changes, i dont know what she meant by that”.
Her maid agreed to stay until she gave birth to her child, but only if “Sir got changes”. Frustrated, the employer said that even in the three months the helper was with them, the family gave her so many gifts and celebrated her birthday twice.
Here’s what netizens who commented on her post said:
Earlier this year, a foreign domestic worker who needed to return home urgently because of her family situation took to social media asking others for advice. She sought advice because she had already gone on home leave two months earlier when her employer had paid for her flight ticket.
In a post to Facebook group FDW in Singapore (working conditions forum), the maid wrote that in a month, she would have worked for her employer for one year. But, she added: “Unfortunately, I need to go back home because of my 3kids. 15y/o, 7y/o and 3y/o. During my stay with my employer, my mum and my husband is looking after my kids. But my husband got approved on his application in Taiwan. So he ask me to go back home because my mum can’t take care of my kids alone as she is already senior”.
The maid was worried as she had just gone home two months before – in December 2022 – as her father passed away. “My employer allow me to go and pay my ticket. Now, my question is, I am planning to go home by the month of June so by May i will notify my employer”, the maid wrote, explaining that her contract will only end in March 2024.
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