How some news papers see us

[Joseph22]

The Independent is a leftist newspaper.

Nothing unusual, typical article from a liberal.

 

Only focus on the "human rights" issue, ignoring the fact that these workers came here to feed their improverished families in Indonesia/myanmar/PH. And that they rather work here then be a domestic helper in their own country. Same shit but less pay.

Same shit but worse cause they cannot do anything to their employer back home if Kenna abuse.

 

Mine also same Scenario ... I don't stop her, so she eat like there's no tomorrow ...

 

Recently before going back to celebrate Hari Raya, she voluntarily control herself ...

We keep telling mine to not eat instant noodle.. Cook proper meal... Ate too much instant noodle bad for health.

[Chowyunfatt]

Same shit but worse cause they cannot do anything to their employer back home if Kenna abuse.

 

We keep telling mine to not eat instant noodle.. Cook proper meal... Ate too much instant noodle bad for health.

 

Mine more Terror ... Blend own Chili ... Fry own Ikan Billis ... Fry own Shallots ... One Sunny Side Up ... Sometimes 1 can of Sardines ... All this for 1 bowl of maggie mee ... 😂

 

KNN ... My Wife & I see already also laugh ... How not to get Fat? ... 😂

[Evillusion]

 

My theory of motivation is v simple. I follow the Maslow Theory

 

http://www.psych2go.net/on-the-power-of-food/

 

 

I never stop my helper from eating food. I made it clear to her that she can eat anything she wants from the fridge to the table. What we eat on the dining table, she gets to eat the same food. No such thing as "maid's cheaper rice, maid's smaller portion, maid's whatever"

 

And she doesn't eat leftovers. When she cooks the food for the family, she will seperate her own portion from the pan or wok and leave it aside, and serve the family portion to us. This is basic human respect.

 

How do we expect someone to give his/her best when he/she is hungry? Food and hunger is the most basic human need. Someone may not have money in the bank, but he needs his stomach to be full. Its very simple argument.

 

Just like in SAF. Soldiers need to be fed well so that they can fight with high morale.

 

And the proof is in the pudding. Every visitor who comes to my place and see how my helper works and takes care of the family, they know that i have a very good helper, motivated, genuine and hardworking and always with a smile.

 

My helper even used her own money to buy bread or other snacks for the family, she refused to take my money when i wanted to pay her. she knows she already getting more than she should be.

 

I always see other families' helpers, their face as black as charcoal with a vengence in her eyes. That tells alot about how the family treats her.

 

What's the extra cost of allowing helper to eat what she wants, compared to the motivation and the willingness to give her best to the family? Always remember that the helper is at your call 24 hours. She needs to be motivated to work for the family.

yes i find your way is better for everyone......we keep them happy and they in turn will do in kind! Some people treats their maid maciam slaves but forget the maid is the one taking care of their loved ones......but there are maids out there who are the opposite.....

[Donut]

yes i find your way is better for everyone......we keep them happy and they in turn will do in kind! Some people treats their maid maciam slaves but forget the maid is the one taking care of their loved ones......but there are maids out there who are the opposite.....

 

its the same in everywhere.

 

In the Army, they can give super good welfare, plenty of R&R and beef steaks, chicken bryani for every meal, but there will still be some soldiers who wants to "keng" and eat snake.

 

Which company will you ever find 100% employee satisfaction, even if the HR benefits is super good and best salary paid? None. There will still be some employees unhappy about certain things and on-going resignations.

 

Likewise, we cannot expect to find 100% super good FDWs, no matter how we treat them. The only thing we can manage is the chances of getting a lousy one, through the way we treat them. If we treat the helper badly, the chances of this helper getting worse is almost 100% for sure, and vice versa.

[Darryn]

The Independent is a leftist newspaper.

Nothing unusual, typical article from a liberal.

 

Only focus on the "human rights" issue, ignoring the fact that these workers came here to feed their improverished families in Indonesia/myanmar/PH. And that they rather work here then be a domestic helper in their own country. Same shit but less pay.

I tot the article explicitly mentioned the pay issue - how they can earn 5 time here what they can back home?

 

My theory of motivation is v simple. I follow the Maslow Theory

 

http://www.psych2go.net/on-the-power-of-food/

 

 

I never stop my helper from eating food. I made it clear to her that she can eat anything she wants from the fridge to the table. What we eat on the dining table, she gets to eat the same food. No such thing as "maid's cheaper rice, maid's smaller portion, maid's whatever"

 

And she doesn't eat leftovers. When she cooks the food for the family, she will seperate her own portion from the pan or wok and leave it aside, and serve the family portion to us. This is basic human respect.

 

How do we expect someone to give his/her best when he/she is hungry? Food and hunger is the most basic human need. Someone may not have money in the bank, but he needs his stomach to be full. Its very simple argument.

 

Just like in SAF. Soldiers need to be fed well so that they can fight with high morale.

 

And the proof is in the pudding. Every visitor who comes to my place and see how my helper works and takes care of the family, they know that i have a very good helper, motivated, genuine and hardworking and always with a smile.

 

My helper even used her own money to buy bread or other snacks for the family, she refused to take my money when i wanted to pay her. she knows she already getting more than she should be.

 

I always see other families' helpers, their face as black as charcoal with a vengence in her eyes. That tells alot about how the family treats her.

 

What's the extra cost of allowing helper to eat what she wants, compared to the motivation and the willingness to give her best to the family? Always remember that the helper is at your call 24 hours. She needs to be motivated to work for the family.

For us, the maid would help with the cooking (unless wifey wanted kitchen to herself) and then we would all eat together - wifey serve initial portion with maid to take more if she wanted.

Stayed with us three years, put on a lot of weight.

 

Heard that after she went back, mummy daddy take all her money she saved :-(

[Evillusion]

 

its the same in everywhere.

 

In the Army, they can give super good welfare, plenty of R&R and beef steaks, chicken bryani for every meal, but there will still be some soldiers who wants to "keng" and eat snake.

 

Which company will you ever find 100% employee satisfaction, even if the HR benefits is super good and best salary paid? None. There will still be some employees unhappy about certain things and on-going resignations.

 

Likewise, we cannot expect to find 100% super good FDWs, no matter how we treat them. The only thing we can manage is the chances of getting a lousy one, through the way we treat them. If we treat the helper badly, the chances of this helper getting worse is almost 100% for sure, and vice versa.

army...depends lor.....if ns men sure most will chut pattern wan. If regular 1st contract will be damn xiao on and kilat wan....2nd contract can cut both ways! Usually a worker who perceived to have been treated unfairly will start to lose focus and becomes jaded. There are plenty of such cases every where and on every level. The key thing is being fair and accomodating and not diss them when the opportunity comes. Sometime it need just a little comforting words to make them change their attitude!

[Evillusion]

I tot the article explicitly mentioned the pay issue - how they can earn 5 time here what they can back home?

 

For us, the maid would help with the cooking (unless wifey wanted kitchen to herself) and then we would all eat together - wifey serve initial portion with maid to take more if she wanted.

Stayed with us three years, put on a lot of weight.

 

Heard that after she went back, mummy daddy take all her money she saved :-(

bro.....some of them cant even find a job back home. I ever spoke with a bartender in Batam...his pay roughly SGD 150.....if for unskilled ones in India and Bangladesh it can become lower!

I have heard many horror story of maid being fleeced of their money by their bf and sometimes husband. They send money back home every month in the hope that the hubby/bf spends the money wisely to built their 'nest' but when they went back home the money was used to buy for the bf/hubby new wife......there are many other sad story. My cousin showed me a letter sent by her maid's bf.....very sad story...brother sister cousin niece had accident...need money for their education and the maid wanted to send money to him in pinoyland but luckily stopped by her employer. Kns....found out bf was using her money to enjoy life with other females....

[Lala81]

They did mention the pay. But this is the title. Lol "routinely exploited", "often abused", "in the service of rich nationals".

 

 

 

 

Singapore's domestic workers routinely exploited and often abused in the service of rich nationals

 

 

 

[Darryn]

Could be me...But yes, I would say maids are often abused.

 

Also that many are exploited, so routinely not wrong.

 

Rich nationals ....debatable.

 

The overall treatment can certainly improve...

[Neutrino]

The Independent is NOT a left wing newspaper.

 

What happened it seems to me is that with D Cameron in Singapore with an entourage of UK press the editor of The Independent told his reporter to file a story with local flavour.

 

Maybe one of the locals who seem to continually side with the maid point of view contacted the reporter and gave a biased, which it is no matter that a small %age of maids are ill treated, and virtually wrote the story for him.

No way he could have researched the story himself, imo.

 

One piece amongst many looks wrong to me and that is where it was reported that a maid sat in an agent's office for a few days before she found an employee. That no longer happens??? unless the maid has for whatever reason lost her job and has a certain length of time to find another job before she is repatriated. That shoul;d have been explained because the maid might have been very poor quality or caught stealing or not following the rules about time off or having a foreign boyfriend back at the property or.. there are millions of reasons for transfer maids.

 

And the UK is a shining light in how it treats foreign nationals within the UK. (snigger)

 

And I can't agree with Darryn that maids are 'often' abused or that many are exploited.

Edited July 29, 2015 by Neutrino

[Kiadaw]

While I agree the article do not give an real perspective to how widespread the maid abuse are, & the omission is poor reporting. But in reality, do we actually know how widespread abuses are?. A lot of us probably do not want to know also.

 

Of the reported case of abuse, how many went unheard? I think Maid abuse are rare, though I do have think exploit is not uncommon, like asking maids to wash car daily, a job that should be done by guys, & maybe once every week or 2. I have a neighbor that ask her maid to do it twice a day.

 

The way I see it, if we have any data that support Maid Abuse are rare (less than 1 or 2% maybe), I think we should have a case, & our interest to ask Independence to run another article to clarify the extend of the abuse.

 

In any case, whatever the result of the extend of Maid abuse, any maid abuse is one case too many, & we should not ignore them, & should have a sets of rules & law to prevent them from happening. (if we do not have the laws already in place).

[Darryn]

The Independent is NOT a left wing newspaper.

 

What happened it seems to me is that with D Cameron in Singapore with an entourage of UK press the editor of The Independent told his reporter to file a story with local flavour.

 

Maybe one of the locals who seem to continually side with the maid point of view contacted the reporter and gave a biased, which it is no matter that a small %age of maids are ill treated, and virtually wrote the story for him.

No way he could have researched the story himself, imo.

 

One piece amongst many looks wrong to me and that is where it was reported that a maid sat in an agent's office for a few days before she found an employee. That no longer happens??? unless the maid has for whatever reason lost her job and has a certain length of time to find another job before she is repatriated. That shoul;d have been explained because the maid might have been very poor quality or caught stealing or not following the rules about time off or having a foreign boyfriend back at the property or.. there are millions of reasons for transfer maids.

 

And the UK is a shining light in how it treats foreign nationals within the UK. (snigger)

 

And I can't agree with Darryn that maids are 'often' abused or that many are exploited.

 

If you can't agree with "often" abused - or "many" being exploited, what would you say?

Cite

 

 

However, a recent survey of 670 maids by foreign worker group Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics found that only 40 per cent of the respondents had a weekly day off.

Dunno about you, but yes, I would call working 7 days a week "exploited" and I would also call 60% "many"

 

Edited July 30, 2015 by Darryn

[Darryn]

Or here is April 2014 Article

 

 

 

Only about a third of newer maids here get their mandatory weekly day off, and both employers and maids are responsible for the poor record. - See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/employers-maids-dont-forget-day#sthash.akYsHD5S.dpuf

 

It says January last year - so the figure is presumably January 2013

 

But again - even if the figure getting off days has doubled since then, you still have 33% working 7 days a week - I would also call that "exploited"

[Darryn]

Here's a fairly robust 2011 survey

 

 

 

Whilst the survey showed that physical abuse was rare, with only one out of 100 hundred respondents having experienced it, verbal abuse was more common. Three in ten respondents reported that they were shouted at by their employers or their employer’s family members. The survey also showed that domestic workers work long hours ranging from 14 to 17 hours with short breaks in between.

 

Half of the workers surveyed indicated that they did not have access to a regular day off, while a majority of the other half who reported being granted days off were only given one day off a month. Overall, 82 per cent of the workers surveyed indicated that they were happy working in Singapore although one in six expressed the view that their living and working conditions could be better.

 

30% Shouted at by boss or family members? - Yep, I'd call that "often abused"

14 Hours work a day? - Yep I'd call that "eploited"

 

How much do you think things have improved since 2011? What level would you put as "infrequent" abuse?

And here you go - a nice little tidbit from CNA

 

 

 

He said up to four out of five [maids who are physically abused] withdraw their complaints and go home. Others leave when their claims cannot be substantiated - sometimes even after they pass lie detector tests conducted by the police - and their employers cannot be charged in court. - See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/maids-claiming-abuse-face-long-wait-justice#sthash.JQfztJnh.dpuf

 

Again - how do such figures square with you?

[Evillusion]

Or here is April 2014 Article

 

 

It says January last year - so the figure is presumably January 2013

 

But again - even if the figure getting off days has doubled since then, you still have 33% working 7 days a week - I would also call that "exploited"

like that many Singaporwan are actually ecploited hor😂😂😂😂

[Darryn]

like that many Singaporwan are actually ecploited hor😂😂😂😂

Yep...

 

Work hours in Singapore has been reported before - we hardly do particularly well in areas of work life balance

[Kiadaw]

Wow, thanks Darryn, thanks for the data.

 

Presumely true, the data is very disturbing, & I feel ashame of what such widespread abuse & exploit in Singapore.

 

Independence reporting is unfortunately valid. There is no case to complain about the article.

 

Its unforunately it takes a foreign & widely read media to report it, but maybe its a blessing in disguise. WIth focus from an influquent outside media, maybe our authority will be more proactive to tackle this issue.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Kiadaw

[Darryn]

Wow, thanks Darryn, thanks for the data.

 

Presumely true, the data is very disturbing, & I feel ashame of what such widespread abuse & exploit in Singapore.

 

Independence reporting is unfortunately valid. There is no case to complain about the article.

 

Its unforunately it takes a foreign & widely read media to report it, but maybe its a blessing in disguise. WIth focus from an influquent outside media, maybe our authority will be more proactive to tackle this issue.

Frankly,

 

I'd take the figures with a slight pinch of salt - most of the surveys are done by leftward leaning agencies. But their methodology should still be basically sound. (thing is, even if you do discount the figures by 10-20% they are still pretty bad)

 

Here's the thing though - although this article was in a foreign paper, very very similar articles in tone and stats can be found in places like CNA or Today,

 

Another thing that disappoints is the lack of comprehensive statistics on the matter, and furthermore, we all know how difficult it is for maids to report abuse and the barriers - so you would expect any official figures of abuse to be low.

While I agree the article do not give an real perspective to how widespread the maid abuse are, & the omission is poor reporting. But in reality, do we actually know how widespread abuses are?. A lot of us probably do not want to know also.

 

Of the reported case of abuse, how many went unheard? I think Maid abuse are rare, though I do have think exploit is not uncommon, like asking maids to wash car daily, a job that should be done by guys, & maybe once every week or 2. I have a neighbor that ask her maid to do it twice a day.

 

The way I see it, if we have any data that support Maid Abuse are rare (less than 1 or 2% maybe), I think we should have a case, & our interest to ask Independence to run another article to clarify the extend of the abuse.

 

In any case, whatever the result of the extend of Maid abuse, any maid abuse is one case too many, & we should not ignore them, & should have a sets of rules & law to prevent them from happening. (if we do not have the laws already in place).

My understanding is, by strict interpretation of the rules, washing car is actually not allowed (I could be wrong here, but I have heard this before, as the car is "outside" the house, the maid is not supposed to do*)

 

I would also like to see more robust data collection methods so that we know what is going on more accurately - sadly, there is only lip service being paid to this at the moment

 

* P.S - our maid used to request to wash the car (she liked it for some reason) and we paid her an extra $10 for doing this. She would do maybe once every two months or so - mostly those weeks we didn't go JB

While I agree the article do not give an real perspective to how widespread the maid abuse are, & the omission is poor reporting. But in reality, do we actually know how widespread abuses are?. A lot of us probably do not want to know also.

 

Of the reported case of abuse, how many went unheard? I think Maid abuse are rare, though I do have think exploit is not uncommon, like asking maids to wash car daily, a job that should be done by guys, & maybe once every week or 2. I have a neighbor that ask her maid to do it twice a day.

 

The way I see it, if we have any data that support Maid Abuse are rare (less than 1 or 2% maybe), I think we should have a case, & our interest to ask Independence to run another article to clarify the extend of the abuse.

 

In any case, whatever the result of the extend of Maid abuse, any maid abuse is one case too many, & we should not ignore them, & should have a sets of rules & law to prevent them from happening. (if we do not have the laws already in place).

My understanding is, by strict interpretation of the rules, washing car is actually not allowed (I could be wrong here, but I have heard this before, as the car is "outside" the house, the maid is not supposed to do*)

 

I would also like to see more robust data collection methods so that we know what is going on more accurately - sadly, there is only lip service being paid to this at the moment

 

* P.S - our maid used to request to wash the car (she liked it for some reason) and we paid her an extra $10 for doing this. She would do maybe once every two months or so - mostly those weeks we didn't go JB