<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Errant maids: Employers shouldn't have to bear the cross alone
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Ms Germaine Ong's letter last Saturday, "Errant maids: No recourse for employers who become victims".
I empathise with the writer in her dilemma of having to single-handedly resolve the missing-maid issue.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has placed the onus of missing maids on the employer, precluding all circumstances and leaving no grey areas; the police are too busy; the agent disowns all responsibility after receiving his fees. Should it not be a team effort? After all, MOM receives a maid levy and the agent has collected his fees upfront.
Can't maid agencies bear partial responsibility? Understandably, nobody can guarantee a maid's reliability 100 per cent, but the agent did screen the candidate and advertise her for employment. On this count, MOM can make sure that the profusion of agencies should be controlled so that quality precedes quantity.
Is it not reasonable to suggest that a fraction of the massive MOM levy on the population of about 200,000 maids be set aside to cover costs associated with managing errant maids?
This can fund police or outsourced efforts to track and find the missing maids. In this way, there is a joint effort by all parties to manage and resolve the errant maid issue.
Employers no longer have to bear the cross alone. With this approach, we may reap the bonus benefits of increasing the country's birth rate as potential mothers will be less stressed.
Jack Chew
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I REFER to Ms Germaine Ong's letter last Saturday, "Errant maids: No recourse for employers who become victims".
I empathise with the writer in her dilemma of having to single-handedly resolve the missing-maid issue.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has placed the onus of missing maids on the employer, precluding all circumstances and leaving no grey areas; the police are too busy; the agent disowns all responsibility after receiving his fees. Should it not be a team effort? After all, MOM receives a maid levy and the agent has collected his fees upfront.
Can't maid agencies bear partial responsibility? Understandably, nobody can guarantee a maid's reliability 100 per cent, but the agent did screen the candidate and advertise her for employment. On this count, MOM can make sure that the profusion of agencies should be controlled so that quality precedes quantity.
Is it not reasonable to suggest that a fraction of the massive MOM levy on the population of about 200,000 maids be set aside to cover costs associated with managing errant maids?
This can fund police or outsourced efforts to track and find the missing maids. In this way, there is a joint effort by all parties to manage and resolve the errant maid issue.
Employers no longer have to bear the cross alone. With this approach, we may reap the bonus benefits of increasing the country's birth rate as potential mothers will be less stressed.
Jack Chew
and when it is near bonus time....
