SINGAPORE: Probably taking their employer-employee relationship one step too far, an employer wanted to know if she could stop her maid from travelling to other countries during her home leave.
In an anonymous post to a Facebook support group for domestic helpers and employers alike, the employer wrote that her maid was going on leave and said that she wanted to travel to other countries as well during the break. The employer asked: “Can I reject as I don’t feel is safe?”
Most who responded to the post in the comments section said that the employer was being too controlling. They said that being a maid was just a job and the helper was not a slave. Others also said that the helper should be able to go wherever she wanted during her leave, as long as the employer did not have to pay for her travel expenses. There were, however, some who agreed with the employer and said she could reject her maid’s travel plans.
Here’s what they wrote:
Earlier this year, another employer took to social media asking others for advice because her foreign domestic helper wanted to take three months of salary with her when she went on leave.
In an anonymous post to a Facebook group for domestic helpers, the employer wrote that she was “just asking for a little more context so I can make a decision on giving an advance to my helper before she goes on home leave”. She explained that her maid was going on leave for a month and that she paid for her helper’s return ticket. In addition, she also gave her maid two months’ salary to take with her. Despite this, the employer wrote that her maid “has requested for an additional 1 month advance salary, saying that she’d like to take her family on trips within the Philippines and her 2-month fund would not be enough. So that’s 3 months’ salary”.
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