SINGAPORE: An employer took her maid to Batam and abandoned her there because the helper failed to prepare breakfast that day.

The employer, 51-year-old Hong Xuanyu, was fined S$13,000 for failing to return Islahatul to her home town and for violating employment regulations by ordering her maid to assist at Hong’s hawker stall without a valid work permit. She pleaded guilty to the two charges under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act.

After her Indonesian helper, Islahatul Alif did not prepare breakfast as she wanted, Hong told her maid that she would send her home to Surabaya for a 10-day vacation via Batam.

The helper initially refused for fear of being fired when she returned home, but Hong assured Islahatul that she would not be replaced.

Hong returned Islahatul’s phone at the Singapore Cruise Centre and gave her a salary of S$350 after deducting the ferry ticket cost. She then asked a friend to cancel her helper’s work permit.

When they arrived in Batam that day, Hong told the helper to take a taxi to the airport and fly home to Surabaya. She did not pay for the taxi fare nor the air ticket and failed to return Islahatul her work permit card.

Hong then took a ferry back to Singapore, leaving Islahatul alone on the Indonesian island. The maid’s phone was dead, and she was away from home.

The helper asked a taxi driver for help and used the driver’s phone to call her employment agent in Singapore, who arranged for her to stay at a friend’s house in Batam until they brought her back to Singapore. /TISG