Brian's Podcast - "The Root of It"

We all know that the issue of maid abuse is an important one, but I think that it’s only the symptom of a much larger issue, which is basically the definite role or lack there-of of a domestic worker.

Where do we place these workers in our society? In all employer-employee relationships there’s a common understanding of what is expected from both parties. In any normal job, the employee expects to be given work that is relevant to his or her post, and the employer expects the employee to do his or her work well since it is what the employee is hired for.

That common knowledge is what is missing when it comes to domestic workers, which is why we have such a blurred line when it comes to what their duties should be and what rights they are entitled to. Some people view domestic workers as a cheap pair of hands. Others think of them as affordable, super multi-task workers. There are also those who believe that domestic workers are helpers, and others who take them as servants. How people view domestic workers will affect how they treat them, whether as part of the family or as someone who is little more than an intelligent animal.

The whole problem lies in what domestic workers are portrayed as. If maid agencies keep putting up posters that advertise cheap maids who need no days off, then there will be people who will view them as ‘cheap machines’ that can and will be there to wait hand and foot at any hour of the day.

How are domestic workers different from any other so-called normal job in Singapore? We all work to earn money, and they’re doing the same. So why are they sometimes thought of as ‘lesser’? Why are there so many cases of maids not being allowed out of the house, or stories of them being isolated from the rest of society for almost the entire duration of their service when in an eight-to-five desk job, you aren’t even confined to your cubicle for the entire day? Why do we have cases of maids being punished so badly it turns to abuse while in other jobs, the boss just gives you an earful? And even if your boss is a slave-driver, the worst he or she can do is just saddle you up with loads of work that you can take home. He doesn’t lock you up in the office complex and demand you don’t sleep until it’s all done.

While it can be argued that the reason why maids are treated so badly is because no one will know what goes on behind the closed doors of a person’s house, I still think that the root of the problem is how we view them. And while talks and other things like the Life-for-Rent conference ask questions that provoke us to treat maids as equals, to remember that they’re human and that they should be treated as such, the most important question we should ask is “How did we ever form the notion that we’re better in the first place?”

I blame the agencies. Both the ones here and those in the countries of origin of the domestic workers. It is these agencies that paint the picture of a domestic worker, making them out to be born for servitude, capable of performing a wide variety of duties, requiring no or few days off, all for the low, low cost of a few hundred dollars a month.

If we draw a parallel, that’s like sending in a resume that goes along the lines of “Able to do admin work, customer relations, sales, accounts and make coffee for a fraction of the cleaner’s pay every month for the next two years.”

Now, let’s listen to a short interview with a 44 year old lady, working as a purchasing assistant. You’ll notice that most of what she thinks or knows of maids is mostly dependent on what the agency tells her.

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(B = myself, Brian. L = the interviewee, Lorna.)

B: Okay, what is your name and age?

L: My name is Lorna I am 44 years old.

B: And what are you working as?

L: I’m working as a purchasing assistant

B: Okay, so why did you decide to hire a maid?

L: I decided to hire a maid because… to look after my grandmother and my kids.

B: So why couldn’t you look after them yourself or put them in a home or a childcare centre?

L: I’m working and my kid was just about a year or so.

B: So when you hired the maid, besides taking care of your grandmother and your kids, what other duties did you expect her to perform?

L: Besides looking after the granny and the kid she has to clean the house and cook the meals.

B: So besides that, there was nothing else you expected?

L: No, as long as she finished her duties she can go and sleep.

B: Okay, so what is your perception of a maid? Why do you think they come here to Singapore?

L: They come here to earn money for their family back home.

B: So as an employer, how do you think maids should be treated in general?

L: They should be treated fairly, like, they have some maids that are…

B: Okay, so, with these maids what precautions do you think should be taken by the employer?

L: Like what?

B: Should you restrict them from going out or maybe only limit them to one off day, a few hours on the off day only, do you give them money to go out, do you give them access to their passport and all that?

L: No, they don’t have all that…

B: So you think that they should be restricted from having their passports?

L: Yes

B: And what about going out?

L: Going out… They’re entitled to one day, a month I think, or a week.

B: One day a month, a week. So when normal people get weekends off, you think that maids should be restricted to one day a month or a week?

L: They have their weekdays off

B: But Indonesian maids don’t have their weekdays off.

L: No, because it’s a requirement if the family needs to look after elderly, then the maids don’t get but they get paid in return.

B: Okay, so how much did you pay your maid a month? How much did she get to pocket?

L: Er, for the first few months I think she doesn’t have much, maybe about 10 or 20 because she has to pay the agency, other than that after if she finished paying her debts with the agency then she gets all, we will save for her about 200 then she gets 60.

B: So you only gave her 60 dollars to pocket and the rest you saved into an account under her name?

L: Yes, saved into an account under her name.

B: So you didn’t let her spend all of the money.

L: No.

B: So why did you do that?

L: I think it’s required..

B: The agency asked you to do that.

L: The agency asked us to do that..

B: Was it in the rules or was it a suggestion?

L: Most of them we were told to… we were advised to open an account for her.

B: Okay. So were there any other rules or regulations that the agency put?

L: No. Not…

B: Not at all?

L: No.

B: Okay, thank you for your time!

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It’s quite clear then, that the agencies have a huge role to play when it comes to the welfare of domestic workers. They are the ones who tell employers what to expect, if not formally, then ‘informally’ in the form of ‘advice’, when dealing with maids. It is also through these bits of advice that they inculcate certain attitudes towards domestic workers, which, over time, grow into the problems we see on the surface, especially if all you know about domestic workers comes from agencies, as you can clearly see in extracts from another interview with a 46 year old sales manager, Alan.

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(B = myself, Brian. A = interviewee, Alan.)

B: So, what is your perception of a maid? You know that they come from foreign countries, they come to work, so what do you think they expect when they come here?

A: I don’t think... I don’t know what they expect or don’t expect…

B: So…

A: Nothing much to think about there, right?

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B: So what is your view of maids, then? What do you expect them to do when they come over here?

A: A maid is to look after the house, keep the house clean, look after the kids.

B: So basically they’re these multi-task workers that are supposed to take care of all domestic affairs…

A: Yes.

B: At the lowest price possible?

A: Yes.

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Yes, I admit, part of the blame is the employer’s to bear when it comes to these cases of looking down on the domestic worker. But if we want to address this problem, we can’t just rely on educating the public, because something needs to be done at the root of the problem, something needs to be done with the agencies that market maids as cheap labour.

Because if you look at it objectively, being a domestic worker is a job and isn’t something that should be viewed as a ‘lower class’ thing.

Thank you.