SINGAPORE: Not long after a foreign domestic helper asked to be able to hold her passport, her employers hired a replacement maid.
In an anonymous post to a support group on social media for helpers and employers alike, the maid wrote that she reached out to her boss asking if “I can take my passport back and keep it myself and it didnt turned (sic) out well”.
“To my surprise, they already took a replacement maid yesterday and was told to be sent back home by next month after training the new maid”, she wrote. Responding to some comments, the maid also shared that she had to clean a 4-storey house herself and it had a garden. She also had to do the chores for the 9 people living there, which meant she had to wake up at 5.30 am and only finished work at 9.30 pm.
In her post, she asked others in the group if they would hire her after she was sent back to the Philippines. The maid also wrote that she posted anonymously as she was afraid her employer too was in the group.
Here’s what netizens commented on her post:
Earlier this year, a puzzled employer took to social media sharing the situation where her maid ran away, taking only her passport with her. In an anonymous post, the employer wrote that the maid also left behind all her belongings and Work Permit.
Sharing her situation to a Facebook group for employers and helpers, the woman wrote: “Today, I am upset with the sudden missing of a helper whom I have treated like my own family. Given her all the flexibility, care and concern. I never expect that being kind and nice, my helper would still run away. Her job was never difficult coz I’ve been doing it myself all this while. I really take care of her”.
The employer added that her maid had more rest time than work, where the maid only had to cook dinner when her employer’s children were in school. The helper would then get to rest from 1 pm to 5.30 pm as no one would be at home.