SINGAPORE: An employer who sent her maid on “emergency leave” found out that the helper did not want to come back to return to work for her.
In an anonymous post to a Facebook support group for helpers and employers alike, the woman explained that her maid went on leave and told her she needed to go as it was an emergency. Trying to be kind, the family sent her back for a month. The woman added that after returning home, the maid asked her to cancel her Work Permit (WP) as “she wants to join another family where she used to work on her off days”.
It is illegal for domestic workers to moonlight, and the Manpower Ministry makes it clear that foreign domestic workers here must work only for their designated employer according to the terms of the work permit, a CNA article reported.
If convicted of breaching this, a worker can be fined up to S$20,000 or jailed for two years or both. Her work permit will be revoked, after which she will be sent home and barred from working in Singapore.
Her employer can also be fined up to S$10,000 and barred from hiring another foreign domestic worker.
Netizens who commented on the woman’s post said she should cancel her maid’s Work Permit. Others also cautioned that she could have gotten in trouble for allowing her helper to work elsewhere on her days off.
Earlier this year, another foreign domestic helper took to social media because her divorced employers put her in a difficult situation.
The maid wrote that her employers had been through a divorce and got separated, leading to them living in different houses. “But then they Stil ask me to clean both house. For example: one day I clean at his place one till afternoon and then come back to his ex wife to continue cooking for dinner and sometimes put the kids to dinner as I sleep at his ex wife place”, the maid explained.
She added that her work permit was still under the man’s name. She also added that working at both his place and his ex-wife’s house meant that she often did double work. The maid asked others in the group: “What should I do ? Any suggestions really help me and it tiring work here and there!” /TISG
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