Tired of paying agent fees 'AGAIN & AGAIN'
S'pore's 'unluckiest ma'am' has 12 maids in 6 years
ON THE surface, she seems, at best, like a fussy employer for having had 12 maids in six years.
By Tan May Ping
12 May 2009
ON THE surface, she seems, at best, like a fussy employer for having had 12 maids in six years.
Instead, she could well qualify to be the unluckiest 'ma'am' in Singapore.
One maid sneaked a boyfriend into her home at night. Two others prostituted themselves while working for her.
One ran away, another suffered from pneumonia and another could not understand basic English.
And then there was the maid who racked up a phone bill of $1,300.
Little wonder then that Madam Y Q Wang, 38, is upset and intent on pushing for maid agencies to better regulated. (See report on facing page.)
She is now waiting for the replacement for maid No 11 to arrive.
Madam Wang, who usually has two maids at a time, already has No 12 working for her and the new one will be No 13.
The mother of two young girls wrote to The New Paper and the Ministry of Manpower after reading a recent article in this newspaper about a maid who is accused of sexually abusing her two young charges.
She feels the problem lies with the lack of rules controlling maid agencies and the quality of maids they bring in. She wants greater regulation of agencies.
She said that getting a good maid was quite a 'hit-and-miss affair', and that several close friends had bad experiences with maids and changed them a few times.
She added that she was tired of having to pay agents' fees repeatedly.
Madam Wang tries to employ two maids as she lives in a three-storey semi-detached house off Bukit Timah Road with her husband, children and parents-in-law.
'Nobody wants to change maids all the time. All we ask is for the maid to do her job and help lessen the burden, and not to have us watching over her all the time.'
At present, she said, there is little incentive for a maid agency to provide a good maid.
The agency stands to earn extra money from the returned maid if she is transferred to another employer, she said.
Agents argue that transfer fees are there to deter maids from asking for transfers frivolously. But Nation Employment director Gary Chin said he has heard of agents charging their maids as much as two months' pay.
Added Madam Wong: 'If the replacement maid proves unsuitable again, the maid agency is no longer obliged to provide another replacement maid and they earn more money from the second returned maid.
'The employer is forced to go to another agency and try her luck there, thereby generating more business for the maid agency industry as a whole.'
Shocked
Madam Wang faced problems from the first maid she hired while pregnant with her first child in 2003.
That maid racked up a $1,300 phone bill in a month after using the house phone to call her family in the Philippines almost every day.
'I told her she could call home, but I didn't know she was calling every day as I was working full-time then,' she said, adding that she sent the maid back to the agency after two months.
The next few maids weren't up to the mark either. But it was the fifth maid who shocked her.
She found out that the Indonesian maid had been letting her Myanmarese boyfriend into the house two or three times a week to have sex after the family had retired upstairs.
'We don't go downstairs after midnight, and didn't know it had been going on for two to three months until the other maid told us,' she said.
She sacked the maid and made a police report against her in October 2007.
The episode prompted Madam Wang to install CCTV and alarm systems costing about $2,000.
It appeared to work. One day, when the family was out for dinner, the man went to the house and banged on the gate but ran when he saw the CCTV cameras.
But just when she thought the security systems were effective in keeping her maids out of trouble, her mother-in-law caught maid No 6 fiddling with one of the cameras in February.
'I checked the camera that day and saw her leaving after midnight, and coming back after 5am,' said Madam Wang.
The maid had sneaked out through the recently renovated back door, which hadn't been re-connected to the alarm system yet. It turns out that she had been influenced by maid No 9, and they took turns leaving the house on different nights.
She made a police report against both maids, and sent them packing.
Madam Wang said she usually leaves the supervision of the maids to her mother-in-law as she works in her family's travel business in the mornings, and ferries her children around in the afternoons.
Madam Wang claimed she doesn't expect much from her maids other than being able to clean the house, cook simple dishes and interact with the children.
Because of her bad experiences, she no longer gives her maids a day off any more, choosing instead to pay them $20 in lieu.
'Maids No 6 and 9 didn't have days off but they still managed to get hold of handphones and to work as prostitutes,' she added.
After they left, Madam Wang found a booklet containing handwritten notes with her house address, which she presumed they distributed to potential customers.
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'MY MAIDS OF HORROR'
MAID 1: Filipino maid runs up $1,300 phone bill calling the Philippines. Madam Wang returns maid to agency after 2 months.
MAID 2: Filipino maid quarrels with MadamWang after she returns from giving birth at hospital. Blood stains in toilet from water bag bursting not cleaned up after 3days. Maid complains about how much work she has to do. Returned to agency after 8 months.
MAID 3: Transfers from Madam Wang's mother-in-law. Indonesian maid good but asks to return home after 2 years.
MAID 4: Transfers from mother-in-law. Indonesian maid slams car door on daughter's finger, knocks girl's head with car door when she realises contract will not be renewed. Returned to agency after 1 1/2years.
MAID 5: Indonesian transfer maid lets boyfriend into the house two or three times a week to have sex. Returned to agency after 8 months & police report made. Banned from working here.
MAID 6: Filipino transfer maid, who has snitched on Maid 5, becomes prostitute after being influenced by Maid 9. She services at least seven men. Banned from working here after police report.
MAID 7: Indonesian maid has pneumonia and is sent back to the agent on the first day.
MAID 8: Filipino replacement maid asks to return home to her husband after 4 months.
MAID 9: Replacement Indonesian maid solicits men for Maid 6. They take turns to sneak out. Sent home with Maid 6 after working one year. Banned from working here after police report.
MAID 10: Indonesian maid runs away to MOM after 3 weeks, claiming she is overworked & not allowed to eat at proper times. Maid is said to have six years' of experience but doesn't know how to line dustbin. Madam Wang claims mother-in-law helps with housework & adults ate at 9.30pm as her husband works late. But maid 'never asks' if she can eat earlier.
MAID 11: Myanmarese maid unable to understand or speak English, and can't understand instructions like 'boil water' or 'cook rice'. Returned to agency after 2 weeks.
S'pore's 'unluckiest ma'am' has 12 maids in 6 years
ON THE surface, she seems, at best, like a fussy employer for having had 12 maids in six years.
By Tan May Ping
12 May 2009
ON THE surface, she seems, at best, like a fussy employer for having had 12 maids in six years.
Instead, she could well qualify to be the unluckiest 'ma'am' in Singapore.
One maid sneaked a boyfriend into her home at night. Two others prostituted themselves while working for her.
One ran away, another suffered from pneumonia and another could not understand basic English.
And then there was the maid who racked up a phone bill of $1,300.
Little wonder then that Madam Y Q Wang, 38, is upset and intent on pushing for maid agencies to better regulated. (See report on facing page.)
She is now waiting for the replacement for maid No 11 to arrive.
Madam Wang, who usually has two maids at a time, already has No 12 working for her and the new one will be No 13.
The mother of two young girls wrote to The New Paper and the Ministry of Manpower after reading a recent article in this newspaper about a maid who is accused of sexually abusing her two young charges.
She feels the problem lies with the lack of rules controlling maid agencies and the quality of maids they bring in. She wants greater regulation of agencies.
She said that getting a good maid was quite a 'hit-and-miss affair', and that several close friends had bad experiences with maids and changed them a few times.
She added that she was tired of having to pay agents' fees repeatedly.
Madam Wang tries to employ two maids as she lives in a three-storey semi-detached house off Bukit Timah Road with her husband, children and parents-in-law.
'Nobody wants to change maids all the time. All we ask is for the maid to do her job and help lessen the burden, and not to have us watching over her all the time.'
At present, she said, there is little incentive for a maid agency to provide a good maid.
The agency stands to earn extra money from the returned maid if she is transferred to another employer, she said.
Agents argue that transfer fees are there to deter maids from asking for transfers frivolously. But Nation Employment director Gary Chin said he has heard of agents charging their maids as much as two months' pay.
Added Madam Wong: 'If the replacement maid proves unsuitable again, the maid agency is no longer obliged to provide another replacement maid and they earn more money from the second returned maid.
'The employer is forced to go to another agency and try her luck there, thereby generating more business for the maid agency industry as a whole.'
Shocked
Madam Wang faced problems from the first maid she hired while pregnant with her first child in 2003.
That maid racked up a $1,300 phone bill in a month after using the house phone to call her family in the Philippines almost every day.
'I told her she could call home, but I didn't know she was calling every day as I was working full-time then,' she said, adding that she sent the maid back to the agency after two months.
The next few maids weren't up to the mark either. But it was the fifth maid who shocked her.
She found out that the Indonesian maid had been letting her Myanmarese boyfriend into the house two or three times a week to have sex after the family had retired upstairs.
'We don't go downstairs after midnight, and didn't know it had been going on for two to three months until the other maid told us,' she said.
She sacked the maid and made a police report against her in October 2007.
The episode prompted Madam Wang to install CCTV and alarm systems costing about $2,000.
It appeared to work. One day, when the family was out for dinner, the man went to the house and banged on the gate but ran when he saw the CCTV cameras.
But just when she thought the security systems were effective in keeping her maids out of trouble, her mother-in-law caught maid No 6 fiddling with one of the cameras in February.
'I checked the camera that day and saw her leaving after midnight, and coming back after 5am,' said Madam Wang.
The maid had sneaked out through the recently renovated back door, which hadn't been re-connected to the alarm system yet. It turns out that she had been influenced by maid No 9, and they took turns leaving the house on different nights.
She made a police report against both maids, and sent them packing.
Madam Wang said she usually leaves the supervision of the maids to her mother-in-law as she works in her family's travel business in the mornings, and ferries her children around in the afternoons.
Madam Wang claimed she doesn't expect much from her maids other than being able to clean the house, cook simple dishes and interact with the children.
Because of her bad experiences, she no longer gives her maids a day off any more, choosing instead to pay them $20 in lieu.
'Maids No 6 and 9 didn't have days off but they still managed to get hold of handphones and to work as prostitutes,' she added.
After they left, Madam Wang found a booklet containing handwritten notes with her house address, which she presumed they distributed to potential customers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'MY MAIDS OF HORROR'
MAID 1: Filipino maid runs up $1,300 phone bill calling the Philippines. Madam Wang returns maid to agency after 2 months.
MAID 2: Filipino maid quarrels with MadamWang after she returns from giving birth at hospital. Blood stains in toilet from water bag bursting not cleaned up after 3days. Maid complains about how much work she has to do. Returned to agency after 8 months.
MAID 3: Transfers from Madam Wang's mother-in-law. Indonesian maid good but asks to return home after 2 years.
MAID 4: Transfers from mother-in-law. Indonesian maid slams car door on daughter's finger, knocks girl's head with car door when she realises contract will not be renewed. Returned to agency after 1 1/2years.
MAID 5: Indonesian transfer maid lets boyfriend into the house two or three times a week to have sex. Returned to agency after 8 months & police report made. Banned from working here.
MAID 6: Filipino transfer maid, who has snitched on Maid 5, becomes prostitute after being influenced by Maid 9. She services at least seven men. Banned from working here after police report.
MAID 7: Indonesian maid has pneumonia and is sent back to the agent on the first day.
MAID 8: Filipino replacement maid asks to return home to her husband after 4 months.
MAID 9: Replacement Indonesian maid solicits men for Maid 6. They take turns to sneak out. Sent home with Maid 6 after working one year. Banned from working here after police report.
MAID 10: Indonesian maid runs away to MOM after 3 weeks, claiming she is overworked & not allowed to eat at proper times. Maid is said to have six years' of experience but doesn't know how to line dustbin. Madam Wang claims mother-in-law helps with housework & adults ate at 9.30pm as her husband works late. But maid 'never asks' if she can eat earlier.
MAID 11: Myanmarese maid unable to understand or speak English, and can't understand instructions like 'boil water' or 'cook rice'. Returned to agency after 2 weeks.
