Foreign domestic helpers are a mainstay in many Singaporean households – they cook, clean, look after children and the elderly, all while living under the same roof as the family they serve for a paltry sum of approximately $600 per month.
Despite all that, they’re often treated without dignity and respect by employers.
Incident outside Din Tai Fung in Marina Bay Sands
On 20 February 2022, Sunday, Instagram user @joanexoxo shared an appalling encounter to illustrate that.
The incident took place outside Din Tai Fung at Marina Bay Sands, where she saw a “petite lady” sitting on the floor outside the restaurant. Joanne figured the lady was in the queue as well, as there was a long line to the restaurant.
After checking out the stores and coming back to wait out here turn in the online queue, she saw the same petite lady sitting outside.
Things took a turn then – a female patron came out of the restaurant to ask for some items in said petite lady’s backpack and proceeded to scold her harshly in public.
As it turns out, the petite lady was not queuing to dine inside the restaurant – she is a helper waiting for her employer’s family to finish their dinner.
When Joanne went to check on her, she learnt that the helper hadn’t eaten dinner and was waiting for her “boss” to finish dinner first.
When offered cash for dinner, the helper politely declined and thanked Joanne.
Nonetheless, Joanne and her companion went to Breadtalk next to Din Tai Fung and bought some bread back for the helper.
Filled with gratitude the helper kept the bread in her backpack and thanked them profusely.
However, she was too afraid to eat the bread at the time, out of fear that her employer would scold her.
With the use of Google Translate, they discovered that the helper is from Semarang and has only been in Singapore for two months. She is also a young mother of two young children, aged two and three.
They also learnt that her employer and family were at Marina Bay Sands for a staycation. Given the restrictions at the time, the helper could not dine in with them since the family had exactly five people.
In her story, Joanne questioned why the employer could not have left their helper in the hotel room or given her money for food to eat somewhere else, instead of making the lady wait outside the restaurant?
It is important to note that there is a food court, Toast Box and other eateries in the vicinity, where the helper could have easily dined at.
On a parting note, Joanne expressed a desire to do more, but the fear of potential backlash on the helper held her back:
I’m super flabbergasted and on hindsight, maybe we could have done more. But we didn’t want to police the employer to be a better person and treat her helper better (also in the event she takes it out on her helper behind closed doors). I’m just glad we did what we could and hope she won’t go to bed tonight with a heavy heart and hungry stomach.
If this is how she was treated in public, one can only imagine how her employer treats her behind closed doors.
Sadly, maid abuse, and treating helpers without dignity or respect, is not uncommon in Singapore. With minimal support and lack of effective recourse, many helpers are subjected to poor working conditions.
This situation will not improve if the public continues to stay silent on their rights, either out of politeness or fear of backlash. We applaud Joanne for calling it out, and comforting the helper.
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