With one in five households in Singapore employing domestic employees, the latter play an important role in our society, as they help lighten the load of their employers by taking care of their loved ones and providing housekeeping services. The increasing demand for domestic employees in Singapore pushes the Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE), an initiative by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), to continuously improve the domestic employment landscape by taking a proactive and upstream approach. Since its inception, CDE has received some 100 calls and/or cases and proposes several suggestions to address these issues at its source.
CDE’s 100-day Report Card and Upstream Recommendations
As CDE’s 100th day of operation coincides with the month of May, CDE is releasing a 100-day report card to share on the domestic employee-related cases it has received so far and proposes some upstream recommendations. The proposed recommendations by CDE emphasises on boosting training and refining employment structures to address issues concerning domestic employment at its source. More details of CDE’s 100-day report card can be found in Annex A.
From some 100 calls and/or cases received by CDE to-date, 75 per cent are about seeking advice on employment matters while a quarter are on employment disputes and reports of mistreatment. The more common issues that surfaced from these cases are those pertaining to salary and employment contracts, communication barriers and medical costs.
To mitigate these issues, CDE believes that greater awareness and education among employers, domestic employees and other stakeholders are required. Thus, CDE recommends the following upstream measures:
a. Salary and Employment Contracts
Issues pertaining to salary and employment contracts usually arise from the unclear cost structure as well as the practice of safe-keeping of salaries by employers.
CDE recommends: To encourage employers to bring their foreign domestic employees to open a bank account and credit their salaries directly into the account. This would also serve as a form of salary record, which would minimise any disputes on salary non-payment. Instead of the employer safe-keeping a portion of their foreign domestic employee’s salary, CDE advises the foreign domestic employee to safe-keep a portion of their salary in their bank account.
b. Communication Barriers
As English is not the native language of foreign domestic employees, there might be possible communication barriers between the employers and employees.
CDE recommends: To improve employer-employee communication, CDE proposes conversational English to be included as one of the basic competencies required in the skills certification framework for domestic employees.
c. Medical Costs
Under the current legislation, all employers are required to purchase medical insurance with coverage of at least $15,000 per year for inpatient care and day surgery during the foreign domestic employee’s stay in Singapore. But most employers would only purchase the minimum sum largely because the insurance premium payable are combined with security bond and personal accident insurance with no explicit explanation of what the medical coverage would encompass.
CDE recommends: CDE urges all employment agencies to highlight the various insurance schemes available to employers and encourage them to take up one with a higher coverage. This is so that employers will not be overly-burdened when the hospital bills exceed the insurance payout amount should their domestic employee be hospitalised.
In addition, feedback from employers during focus group discussions showed two main areas of concern: the inadequate training that domestic employees receive and the lack of transparency in the cost structure relating to the recruitment and placement of the domestic employees.
To take an upstream approach in addressing these concerns, CDE embarked on two study trips to the Philippines and Indonesia in March and April this year respectively, to gain first-hand knowledge of the recruitment and employment practices of domestic employees at the source countries. CDE met with key government officials, local recruitment agencies, non-government organisations, training providers and other service providers there to explore the following:
a. Inadequate Training
A common feedback most employers gave was the inadequate training that the foreign domestic employee has.
CDE recommends: A skills certification framework modelled after Singapore’s WSQ standard. Some of the skill sets that foreign domestic employees could be certified include housekeeping, cleaning, cooking, laundry and eldercare.
b. Lack of Transparency in Cost Structure
Another concern is the lack in transparency of the cost structure relating to the recruitment and placement of foreign domestic employees.
CDE recommends: A more transparent placement cost structure showing the breakdown in the cost and charges that would allow both the domestic employees and employers to be fully aware of the fees involved before they enter into an employment contract. This would help to minimise salary-related disputes subsequently.
Details of the training framework and a more transparent cost structure are being worked out by the Association of Employment Agencies Singapore and the Singapore Accredited Employment Agencies Association, both of which are key stakeholders that CDE engages at its Domestic Employees Stakeholders Forum.
“From what we have gathered from the ground, more can definitely be done in helping our domestic employees and their employers. While CDE is taking an upstream and proactive approach to help mitigate these issues at the source, a community-wide effort is required to help improve the domestic employment landscape. Nonetheless, CDE will continue to extend our reach to help more domestic employees, be it local or foreign, through taking a fair approach by balancing the needs of the domestic employees and the requirements of the domestic employers.” commented Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, Chairman of CDE.
Moving ahead, CDE plans to launch a mobile centre by the middle of this year to extend its reach to domestic employees at various community areas. Additionally, CDE plans to commission a comprehensive survey to better understand the needs of and ways to better serve the working community. To ensure financial sustainability and proper governance in its delivery of assistance, CDE will also set up a Domestic Employees Welfare Fund.
Thank You Campaign
In line with NTUC’s month-long May Day celebrations, CDE is also encouraging greater appreciation of our domestic employees working here. To bring about greater awareness of and show appreciation for these domestic employees’ contributions, CDE has launched a Thank You Campaign for the month of May. This ground-up initiative by CDE aims to rally all employers, employment agencies and the larger community to thank domestic employees for their hard work and contributions to our families and society.
For three Sundays, CDE staff and volunteers will head to selected community areas to present Thank You cards to the domestic employees. Additionally, these Thank You cards will be available at the different outreach centres like employment agencies, embassies, and NTUC Members’ Hub, to encourage employers, their family members and the public at large to pen their personalised messages of appreciation for domestic employees.
Additionally, CDE is partnering NTUC First Campus’ all 141 centres (i.e. My First Skool, the Little Skool-House International and The Caterpillar’s Cove) to encourage their preschoolers to pen a message or draw on the Thank You cards as a form of personal appreciation for their domestic employees. Through this, CDE hopes to cultivate a sense of gratitude and empathy amongst the preschoolers from a young age.
Participating in one of the appreciation sessions at My First Skool is Mr Yeo Guat Kwang. Mr Yeo will be at My First Skool at Sembawang Shopping Centre on May 4, 2016, to join the preschoolers as they pen or draw on their Thank You cards. Mr Yeo will also greet domestic employees and/or parents who come by to pick-up the preschoolers and spread the message of appreciation to them.
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