Maid loans: What MOM should mandate

[makapaaa]

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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MAID agencies should not collect maid loans from employers. They should collect this money directly from the maids, as and when they earn their monthly wage.
It is very unfair for employers to have to pay a wage, up to nine months in advance, for a maid who has not started work. If the agencies cannot trust the maids to pay the loan in instalments, why should employers trust these maids with their young children and elderly relatives?
In families where the maid does not have a day off, monthly visits by the agent could act as a deterrent against maid abuse.
Alternatively, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) should make it mandatory for agencies to refund the balance of the loan to employers immediately after the maid returns to the agency.
This should apply to all situations, even if the employer is taking a replacement maid. Amid all the complaints of unfairness to employers, this is the least MOM can do to protect employers.
Finally, if an agency closes its business and the maid decides to leave her employer before her loan is paid up, how can the employer recover the advance wages? Do agencies place a bond with MOM, since they collect large sums of money from members of the public? Goh Mei Yen (Ms)

 

[makapaaa]

My job is to collect maid levy for my lord and nothing else! Get it? ​

 

[makapaaa]

'Nothing is done to help employers except to give us answers we already know.'
MADAM KAREN LEOW: 'What is unfortunate is that when employers seek help from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), we're always told there's nothing MOM can do except to advise us to repatriate the maid, transfer or talk to the agency. I've changed maids three times since March, all of whom had no intention to work. My children are aged 10 and four, I have a full-time job in Hong Kong and a part-time one in Singapore when I'm home. I wrote twice to MOM for help - and I was given the option of placing my children in childcare, playgroup and even a home for the old and sick! Nothing is done to help employers except to give us answers we already know. MOM should not set a quota for hiring maids because who wants to waste time and money each time they are forced to change maids? Worst of all, children are the innocent party each time an irresponsible maid arrives.'

 

[makapaaa]

'Repatriate the wrongdoer at the maid's expense.'
MRS PADMINI KESAVAPANY: 'Ms R. Shiamala's experience ('Could she have done more, after her maid spiked her food?', Aug 13) is shocking and frightening. Obviously, for reasons best known to her, she had not done enough. But I hope the little she could have done to drive home a point would have been to repatriate the wrongdoer at the maid's expense. Here is one instance where flexibility on rules and conditions could be considered. I wonder how MOM would view this case. Is this a criminal offence? Is the employer to be penalised for this?'

 

[silverspoon]

MOM usually can't help much in this kind of domestic case