SINGAPORE: 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.
In the comments section, the woman wrote that throughout the seven years, they treated their helper as their family member. “Throughout these years, she has unusual women’s cycle. She can dun come menses for months and doctor confirmed that she is not pregnant. So we have this thought that there could be an error on her lab test. Based on trust, we have never checked on her luggage whenever she is back on home leave”, she wrote. However, that day, the woman wrote that her helper had cleared all her belongings from their home without informing them of her plans.
Netizens said the maid was likely pregnant and suggested the woman cancel her helper’s work permit.
Here’s what they wrote:
 
