Promotion

30Apr08

Tomorrow I’ll be officially promoted to “Ma’am-dom”.

It is no real coincidence that my Filipina domestic helper will be joining us tomorrow, Labour Day. Haha…

I’m already dreaming of hot breakfasts and squeaky clean toilets Sigh…

Also on Labour Day, Unifem, along with Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) and Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home) will be launching a year-long publicity campaign, calling on employers to give their maids at least one day off a month.

A standard MOM employment contract for Foreign Domestic Workers (FDW) was introduced in 2006 and the contract provides for rest days for FDWs, but with an option for the FDW to choose compensation in lieu of taking the day off.

Honestly, I cannot imagine working without a day off. It’s a basic human right isn’t it?

But of course if the domestic helper’s job isn’t that labour or time intensive, then she already has a lot of freedom and time on her hands. I know of a single gay employer who is hardly home. He comes home late and leaves for work early in the morning. All his maid does is keep the house clean, and cook occasionally when he is home. She has a sweet life, I tell you. I wonder why doesn’t he just hire part time help instead. His housekeeping must be quite minimal since the main and only thing he does at home is sleep and he doesn’t have any other family members at home.

But that’s an exceptional case. I believe most FDWs in Singapore do not have it that easy.

Ok, so with my new maid coming, I’ll have to consider her day offs. She had indicated earlier in her contract that she prefers to receive monetary compensation in lieu of taking the day off. So does this mean we can expect her to cook and clean 7 days a week? Despite her expressed preference, it still sounds harsh to expect anyone to work 7 days a week. We’re not exactly running a sweat shop at home. I’m sure hubs and I would also like days when it’s just the 2 of us home alone.

Should I go ahead and give her some days off, out of moral decency, even though we’ll be paying her as if she is working on those days? What do you say?

Filed under: Life at 194, My red dot   |  2 Comments