Slaves in Singapore | maids

Standard contracts on hiring maids launched
By S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 20 July 2006 1532 hrs

SINGAPORE: The Association of Employment Agencies and Casetrust have come up with two standard contracts for maid employers.

The contracts will have a service agreement between the agency and the employer and a second employment contract between the employer and the maid.

Under the agreement, there would be a well defined replacement policy and a fairer refund policy reducing the possibility of disputes.

While the employment contract stipulates the minimum one day off entitlement for the maid in a month, if the day off is not taken, the employer would have to compensate the maid in cash.

All employment agencies accredited by the two bodies (Casetrust and Association of Employment Agencies) would have to implement the standard contracts by the 15th of September 2006. -

I'm wondering how easy is it for a maid to report that she's not getting the extra cash if she can't get out of the house.

Hope she knows how to work the phone. Still can't see why MOM is being obstinate about the mandatory day off thing. It's not about people who claim they need the maid 24/7, that's for sure.