Weekly day off for domestic workers needs backing of law
TWC2 president, Braema Mathi, sent a letter to ‘The Straits Times’ in response to a good editorial on the standard contract for domestic workers agreed between the two main employment agency accreditation bodies. This is the letter as it appeared in the 29th July 2006 edition:
Weekly day off for maids: Make it law
I thank you for sharing your views with your readers in the editorial "A step forward but more to do” (ST, July 25). Much of what you said about the new standard contract drafted by CaseTrust and the Association of Employment Agencies coincides with the reservations of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2).
Weekly day off for maids: Make it law
I thank you for sharing your views with your readers in the editorial "A step forward but more to do” (ST, July 25). Much of what you said about the new standard contract drafted by CaseTrust and the Association of Employment Agencies coincides with the reservations of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2).
While it is indeed an improvement on what went before, issues such as privacy for the domestic worker in the employer's home, and guarantees of enough time to rest and sleep are not adequately tackled.
Like you, we are firmly of the opinion that domestic workers should be entitled to a day off each week, an essential for their well-being.
Your note of caution on how much the new contract can deliver when one too many options have been built into it, is also appreciated. Since TWC2's foundation, we have encountered too many domestic workers in dispute with their employers who were not able to seek help, much less redress or even respite as they had little or no access to the world beyond the house they were working in through having no days-off.
And when they had strong cases of non-payment of salaries, some were unable to wait out the time it would take to resolve their cases through arbitration or legal means; they settled for less than favourable terms just to leave Singapore with their part of their claims.
A contract is all about norm-setting, about standardizing across board on some basics - food, space, days off, minimum wages, household chores - and aimed at bringing the lost, the confused and the unscrupulous employers and employees to a recognition of the minimum standards that are expected of them. When a contract, as you rightly described it, gives too much “wiggle room”, the outliers can continue to remain, relatively untouched, outside this frame.
Certain things should have the force of law behind them, not be dependent on contracts. A weekly day off is one of them.
Braema Mathi (Ms)
President
Your note of caution on how much the new contract can deliver when one too many options have been built into it, is also appreciated. Since TWC2's foundation, we have encountered too many domestic workers in dispute with their employers who were not able to seek help, much less redress or even respite as they had little or no access to the world beyond the house they were working in through having no days-off.
And when they had strong cases of non-payment of salaries, some were unable to wait out the time it would take to resolve their cases through arbitration or legal means; they settled for less than favourable terms just to leave Singapore with their part of their claims.
A contract is all about norm-setting, about standardizing across board on some basics - food, space, days off, minimum wages, household chores - and aimed at bringing the lost, the confused and the unscrupulous employers and employees to a recognition of the minimum standards that are expected of them. When a contract, as you rightly described it, gives too much “wiggle room”, the outliers can continue to remain, relatively untouched, outside this frame.
Certain things should have the force of law behind them, not be dependent on contracts. A weekly day off is one of them.
Braema Mathi (Ms)
President