12 December 2005
The Forum Editor
Straits Times
Fax: 6319-8289
1 I refer to the Forum letter, “Sieve out the good in human rights reports” (ST, December 12) by Ms Juliana Ng Soo Liah.
2 Ms Ng’s call for careful consideration of feedback is a right one. However, Ms Ng may have misconstrued my responses as quoted in the media reports.
3 I have been on record, long before the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, to say that if employers continue to deny their maids day off, this should be legislated. Covering them under the Employment Act, which excludes maids and seamen because of the nature of their work as suggested by the HRW report, may not be the only option.
4 With regards to exit-interviews, there are nearly 150,000 Foreign Domestic Workers (FDW) here and conducting such interviews for each one of them would not be a practical solution. Moreover, holding exit-interviews may be too late in addressing their real problems and nipping them in the bud. If there are complaints, these should be addressed while the maids are still working and not when they are on the verge of going home. It may further delay their departure at a cost to the maids themselves. If the issue is that maids are prevented from filing complaints during their service here despite the existing measures, then the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), working with the various agencies, should explore ways of reaching out to them.
5 We should look at workable solutions taking into account our own context and needs. One solution suggested by the Indonesian Embassy was for maids to keep detailed journals should they encounter unfair treatment or abuse by their employers. It has proven to be valuable advice as it saved the life of Juminem – the maid who was convicted of killing her employer in September 2005 but did not get the death penalty because the court found that there were extenuating circumstances. Another possibility is to give maids access to the Labour Court as a simple and inexpensive way of settling their disputes with their employers if conciliation by MOM fails.
6 MOM has made much progress in their efforts to take care of the maids working here and there is scope for further refinements. But we have also to be balanced in our views and not give the impression that the situation of maid abuse in Singapore is more rampant that it actually is.
Yours Sincerely
Mdm Halimah Yacob
Assistant Secretary-General
NTUC
