Indonesian domestic worker Endang (not her real name) worked for 10 years for her employer and was only paid twice. The payments were not given to her directly but remitted to her family. She was not given a day off and disallowed from owning a mobile phone.
Requests to return to Indonesia to visit her family were denied. Without any money or access to her passport, she was a virtual prisoner in her employer’s home.
With the assistance of HOME, a claim was filed at the Ministry of Manpower and today she received more than $40,000 in back pay.
Cases like Endang’s would not have come to light if not for organisations like HOME. Do support us by donating online at https://www.giving.sg/humanitarian-organisation-for-migrati… or doing an electronic transfer with the following bank details:
Name of organisation: Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics
Bank name: OCBC
Account No: 652-821117-002
Swift Code: OCBCSGSG
On 3 May 2017, at about 1.36PM, I received a call from an unknown number looking for my staff called Kenny Cheong. I told the caller that he got the wrong number and ended the call immediately.
Later, I actually got to known through my assistant manager previously that this staff had borrowed money from several unlicensed money lenders and licensed money lenders. He also told me that there were calls made to my restaurants’ phone lines and also to my kitchen manager, all looking for the same staff Kenny Cheong asking for payments.
My assistant manager also interviewed the staff personally and he did admit to borrowing from 14 unlicensed money lender and 4 licensed money lender. He also gave the contact number of some of our staff working at the restaurant to the lenders.
On the same day at about 2.08PM, my assistant manager texted me saying that he has received WhatsApp messages from a lender introducing himself as Eric. In the text messages, he asked for payment and sent photos of me taken from my Facebook stating that he knows I am the general manager of Kenny Cheong. He threatened us to pay up if not they will make a friend of mine lose his job at Marina Bay Sands.
The staff is currently working for the restaurant, but the company has decided to sack him.
Here is a look at past cases of high-profile maid abuse.
Husband and wife jailed over years of maid abuse
Husband Tay Wee Kiat faced 12 charges involving the couple’s two maids, while Chia Yun Ling was convicted of hitting one of them. ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
A 14-day trial revealed the numerous ways that former regional information technology manager Tay Wee Kiat, 39, and his wife Chia Yun Ling, 41, had assaulted their Indonesian maid for almost two years.
Tay was on March 11 sentenced to two years and four months in jail after he was convicted of all 12 charges.
Nine of the charges were for causing hurt to Ms Fitriyah, 34, with the other three for making his maid from Myanmar, Ms Moe Moe Than, slap Ms Fitriyah on the face; offering to pay Ms Fitriyah and send her home in exchange for not reporting his abuse; and instructing Ms Fitriyah to lie to the police that he did not abuse Ms Than.
Chia, meanwhile, got two months’ jail for slapping Ms Fitriyah some time between June and December 2012 and punching her on the forehead on Dec 7 that year.
Over a two-week period, Zinnerah Abdul Majeed also hit domestic helper May Thu Phyo with a bamboo pole, a belt buckle and even a bicycle lock, leaving her with multiple injuries. PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
All she did was break a cup while washing utensils in the kitchen. But that was enough reason for the domestic helper’s employer, Zinnerah Abdul Majeed, to press a heated metal spoon on her arms around the last week of August 2015.
The helper, Ms May Thu Phyo, 23, had been working for the family for only about a month when the abuse started.
That was not the only punishment Ms May had to endure over a two-week period, a district court heard. Zinnerah had hit her with a bamboo pole, a belt buckle and even a bicycle lock, leaving her with multiple injuries.
On Nov 2, 2016, Zinnerah was jailed 20 months after pleading guilty to three counts of maid abuse at her home in Yishun Avenue 4.
Mother-daughter pair jailed for abusing maid, leaving her with permanent disability
Jayasheela Jayaraman (left) and her mother, Anpalaki Muniandy Marimuthu were sentenced 12 months and 16 months’ jail respectively for hurting the former’s maid. ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
Housewife Anpalaki Muniandy Marimuthu, 65, and her daughter, warehouse supervisor Jayasheela Jayaraman, 43, were on Sept 23, 2016, jailed 16 months and 12 months respectively for hurting the latter’s maid.
Ms Sriyatun, 27, was left with a permanent disability in her left ear from the abuse.
Among the instances of abuse she was subjected to included being slapped for not carrying Jayasheela’s shoes into the family’s Bendemeer flat, having her swollen ear pinched before it healed and having her breast squeezed and twisted for being slow in her work.
Anapalaki also hurt Ms Sriyatun with household objects on a few occasions.
Maid ‘hit with hammer’ for not cleaning toilet properly
Ms Khanifah (above) had been working for Zariah Mohd Ali and Mohamad Dahlan for about six months when the alleged abuses took place. She told the court she was hit on the head with a hammer at least five times.ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
Indonesian domestic worker Khanifah, 35, allegedly suffered various abuses at the hands of her female employer, who is accused of using an array of weapons to injure her.
These included a hammer, bamboo pole and pounder that knocked out or broke her teeth, leaving her with head wounds that are still visible, Ms Khanifah told a district court on April 18, 2016.
The employer, Zariah Mohd Ali, 54, is being tried on 12 of 28 maid abuse charges. Zariah’s husband, Mohamad Dahlan, 56, is also accused of hitting Ms Khanifah with the cover of a frying pan.
The alleged offences occurred at the couple’s home in Woodlands Street 31 between June and December 2012, after Ms Khanifah had been working for them for about six months.
Rosman Anwar (left) and his wife Khairani Abdul Rahman had their jail terms increased for the prolonged abuse of their Indonesian maid. ST PHOTOS: WONG KWAI CHOW
A couple who routinely slapped their Indonesian maid and even threatened to send her to work in the sex trade in Batam had their jail terms increased after the prosecution won its appeal on Sept 25, 2015.
Khairani Abdul Rahman, a 42-year-old customer service officer, had her four-week jail term doubled to eight. Her 47-year-old husband, senior logistics officer Rosman Anwar, had his jail term tripled from two weeks to six.
In allowing the prosecution’s appeal, Judicial Commissioner See Kee Oon said the original sentences were manifestly inadequate for the prolonged nature of the abuse and the psychological and emotional toll on the maid.
In an earlier trial, the couple had been found guilty of causing hurt to Ms Solichah, 28. Khairani was convicted of three charges – two for slapping the maid and one for hitting her with a plastic stool. The husband was convicted on two charges – slapping the maid and pulling her hair.
Woman jailed for joining mother in attack on maid; locking her in apartment
Chua committed both offences while under a mandatory treatment order for paranoid schizophrenia. ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW
Chua Siew Peng, 44, was on May 5, 2016, sentenced to two months’ jail for assaulting her Filipino domestic helper Jonna Memeje Muegue and keeping her locked in her sister’s Bukit Timah condo on Oct 30, 2012.
Chua’s 75-year-old mother Lum Wai Lui had assaulted Ms Muegue for eating salmon not meant for her. Chua then entered the toilet and joined in by pulling the maid’s hair and slapping her repeatedly.
Ms Muegue escaped escaped the following day by climbing out of the sixth-floor window, scaling the ledge and jumping onto the rooftop of the floor below – breaking her feet in the process.
Ms Muegue testified that Lum abused her between March/April 2012 and October that year by punching, slapping, kicking and hitting her head against a wall and pouring bleach on her hands and arms. She also said she was underfed and lost 10kg.
Lum, a retired radiograph and medicine technician, was given 21 months’ probation after being convicted of maid abuse in 2015.
Tutor Low Gek Hong, 37, repeatedly scratched the Myanmar maid on the face, arms and ears for being inefficient, and used a pair of scissors to poke the victim’s left shoulder in February 2012. PHOTO: ST FILE
Tutor Low Gek Hong, 37, repeatedly abused her mother’s 17-year-old maid over three months from December 2011 to February 2012, three months into the maid’s employment at her mother’s Tampines flat.
She repeatedly scratched the Myanmar maid on the face, arms and ears for being inefficient, and used a pair of scissors to poke the victim’s left shoulder in February 2012 because the maid could not find a pillowcase that Low wanted changed. Low also punished the maid by kicking her, biting her, and hitting her with a metal hanger, including once pouring a mug of hot water onto the victim’s back for falling asleep in the toilet.
Low, whose claim that she was suffering from depression when she abused the maid was rejected, was sentenced to nine months jail on April 29, 2015, and ordered to pay the maid $5,000 compensation.
3 more months’ jail for ‘relentless tormentor’ of maid
Chan Huey Fern’s case was said to be one of the most distressing maid-abuse cases. PHOTO: ST FILE
Chan Huey Fern, 33, was on Sept 10, 2014, given three additional months’ jail on top of her 21-month jail sentence for hitting the back of her Indonesian maid with a foldable chair.
She had initially been convicted in 2013 of abusing Ms Juwarti, then 22, at her Buangkok flat between June and September 2010.
Chan, who punched Ms Juwarti in the eye and chest, kicked her in the groin until the latter bled and stamped on her body on separate occasions, had her case labelled as “probably one of the most distressing domestic maid-abuse cases in Singapore” by trial judge Low Wee Ping.
Singaporeans are the unhappiest employees out of of seven Asian markets, according to JobStreet.com’s Job Happiness Index released on Thursday (29 September).
Out of the 67,764 participants from Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam surveyed in June, the 3,398 Singaporean respondents averaged a 5.09 score out of the highest – and happiest – score of 10.
Workers in the Philippines were found to be the happiest, with an average score of 6.25. The average scores of the remaining markets were (in ascending order of happiness): Malaysia (5.22); Vietnam (5.48); Hong Kong (5.56); Thailand (5.74) and Indonesia (6.16).
Singaporeans were also the most pessimistic about their prospects in their existing jobs. Sentiment ratings and future outlooks about their jobs saw them scoring an average of 4.93, the unhappiest score among the surveyed markets.
Among the Singaporean respondents, those in the C-suites (i.e. top corporate executives) were found to be the unhappiest with an average score of 4.4, while fresh graduates were the happiest employees with an average score of 5.3. Those working in the sciences, hotels and restaurants, as well as human resources were found to be the happiest employees.
Lack of management competency was the top reason cited by Singaporean respondents for being unhappy at work. The second biggest factor was the lack of promotions and career development, followed by poor training and development programmes.
Rising unemployment and a slower economy were not factored in the survey, although these factors have a dampening effect, said Chook Yuh Yng, country manager of JobsStreet.com Singapore.
“The number of job seekers is outnumbering vacancies by 100 to 93 for the first time in four years. On the other end of the spectrum, the happiest employees in the Philippines are enjoying stronger economic and job growth,” she said.
Singaporean respondents cited convenient work location, having good colleagues and company reputation as key factors underpinning job happiness. They also recommended getting a new job (30 per cent), a higher salary (19 per cent) and receiving recognition from one’s company (9 per cent) as ways to increase job happiness.
The Singapore National Employers Federation and unions here united to urge companies to show special recognition to workers in celebration of Singapore’s 50 years of independence.
Speaking on Friday at a media briefing on the National Wages Council’s annual wage guidelines for the year ahead, National Trades Union Congress president Diana Chia called on companies that are doing well to reward workers for their contributions toward Singapore’s economic progress.
SNEF president Robert Yap also said his organisation “would like to encourage companies that do well to recognise the contributions of their employees in their own ways”.
Mr Yap noted that DBS Bank has given all employees ranked vice-president and below a $1,000 cash bonus, while in May SMRT gave all employees $500 worth of shopping vouchers.
NTUC’s Social Enterprises will also be giving its employees gifts. NTUC FairPrice announced that it’s 10,000 staff will receive vouchers of between $100 and $200.
The government is considering appropriate ways to recognise public officers’ contributions, said Manpower Ministry permanent secretary Loh Khum Yean.
