SINGAPORE: A foreign domestic helper who initially wanted to break her contract jumped all too quickly at the chance when her employer agreed to let her go back on holiday.
In an anonymous post to a Facebook support group, the woman wrote that her helper from Myanmar had been with the family for seven months. She has had experience working in Singapore, but they hired her directly from Myanmar. “So far, we have been happy with her and has never once scolded her for her mistakes or things she broke. She can rest early as long as work is completed, and no curfew for her off days. She also has not restrictions on her phone and has her own room”, the woman wrote.
She added that her helper came to her and said that she wanted to go back to Myanmar at the end of the year to work there. “We tried to probe for more concrete reasons and she just said she don’t want to work here anymore. We asked if she’s unhappy with us and want to change unemployer but again she says she’s very happy with us. Then it came out that her friend is going back in Dec too”, the employer wrote.
She then said that even though her maid had not completed two years of work as per her contract, the family did not mind letting her go back home for a short holiday.
“When she heard that we can let her go back for holiday, she quickly agree that she’s willing to come back to work if we buy her the holiday ticket home. I am just worried that she will not come back after she left. Or will she use this as her bargaining chip and threaten us again because she knows she is well appreciated here. Asking for advice”, the employer wrote.
Earlier this year, the level of trust a family placed in their maid was very high; despite a local clinic informing them that she could be pregnant and the Manpower Ministry (MOM) asking them to cancel her Work Permit, the family still wanted to keep her.
In an anonymous post to a Facebook support group for domestic workers and employers, one woman took to social media to share their experience. The family had asked their helper to go for her medical test before she flew back to Indonesia to visit her family. The helper said that her father was in a coma, and she was to return to Singapore a few days later.
“We had received a call from the clinic earlier informing that she is possibly pregnant. We have called her to check and she insisted she is not pregnant and willing to do a test in Indo”, the woman wrote in her post. However, she added that MOM notified her to cancel her maid’s Work Permit. The woman added that she and her family still wanted to keep her maid as long as she was not pregnant and asked if they could appeal to MOM. She said that the helper had worked for them for seven years.
“But MOM has then sent us a notification to cancel her work permit but we want to keep her (if she is indeed not pregnant). She has worked for us for 7 yrs. Can we submit an appeal to MOM and what is the chances of getting her back? Does anyone has the same experience?” the woman wrote.
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