Singapore – The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has issued an apology to ex-DJ and social media influencer Jade Rasif for saying that her account of her foreign domestic worker’s Covid-19 scare was “inaccurate.”
Ms Rasif took to social media last week to share that her domestic worker was released from her stay-home notice after a few days.
She was told that the domestic worker had “recovered”, hence the early release.
However, the maid received a call two weeks later for a Covid-19 test. The test result came back positive, resulting in her getting placed on stay-home notice again.
Mr Rasif highlighted that they weren’t provided with information on their domestic worker’s status, such as the location of the stay-home notice or if she and her family members also had to quarantine for being in contact with the Covid-19 positive case.
Ms Rasif, who now works in the healthcare industry, inquired with the ambulance service that had conveyed their maid but received an expletive reply.
The 27-year-old also contacted the courts to request a postponement of a scheduled court appearance but was informed by the police that she was being investigated for violating a quarantine order even though she never received one.
On May 16, Ms Rasif posted details of their experience on Facebook, including screenshots of her conversation with the ambulance service, who told her to “F*** off.”
MOM took to Facebook on May 17 to explain how the situation was handled and indicated that Ms Rasif’s account was “inaccurate.”
“Ms Jade claimed that she was unable to contact anyone about her MDW’s (migrant domestic worker) situation. MOM and MOH (Ministry of Health) had contacted the MDW’s employer on two occasions,” said MOM.
MOM also noted that she could not have been investigated for a breach of quarantine order as she was never issued one.
Ms Rasif then responded to MOM’s post, wondering which part of her account was inaccurate. She added that the dates provided in MOM’s post did not match the actual events.
On May 20, Ms Rasif recorded a series of Instagram stories with her reacting to the turn of events. She also included text messages and phone call recordings of her speaking with a “manager from MOM.”
One of the MOM officers she had spoken to also “apologised and admitted that their press release was inaccurate and made without sufficient research.”
On Saturday (May 22), MOM posted an update on Facebook, apologising for what happened.
“We note that the use of the word ‘inaccurate’ and one of the points in our May 17 FB post could have portrayed Ms Rasif to be providing an inaccurate account on the quarantine order investigation. She shared with us that this had affected her negatively.”
“We would like to extend our apologies to her for this,” said MOM.
“Hence, we will retract this point and redact the word ‘inaccurate’ in our May 17 FB post,” added MOM.
They also retracted their statement that MOM had reached out to her family on the complaint made against the ambulance driver.
Regarding how one of its officers had handled the phone call with Ms Rasif, MOM acknowledged that the officers “could have done better and been more tactful in addressing Ms Rasif’s questions.”
“We assured her that we will improve on this aspect of communication with our customers,” said MOM.
MOM noted that an internal review of its communications and service delivery process will be conducted.
“We thank Ms Rasif for her candid feedback and wish her and her family all the very best of health and well wishes,” added MOM.
Ms Rasif also shared MOM’s post and wrote in the caption, “Thank you and I graciously accept.”/TISG
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