Straits Times April 20, 2012
An Indonesian maid fell to her death yesterday from the fifth floor of a Housing Board flat in Punggol, Singapore, apparently while cleaning the windows. The 34-year-old is the seventh maid to fall to her death here so far this year — last year saw four in total.
The fatal fall took place at around 5.25 a.m., at Block 174C of Edgedale Plains.
A third-floor resident said she heard a loud thump around 5.20 a.m. The 50-year-old housewife said she thought it was from a bundle of newspapers that vendors were preparing to deliver till she saw police cars at the block.
“I heard she might have been cleaning the windows,” she said in Mandarin. “But to me, that’s an odd time for cleaning.”
Other neighbors, who described the maid as quiet but friendly, said her employer was an elderly woman who lived in the flat with her daughter.
They were at home when The Straits Times visited their flat in the evening, but they refused to answer the door.
According to Chinese-language newspaper Shin Min Daily, the maid was said to have worked for the family for more than a year.
The employer was quoted as saying that she did not notice anything unusual about the maid before the incident. She said she was sleeping when the maid fell, but suspects the maid might have been cleaning the windows.
Shin Min reported that she had stressed to the maid the importance of safety when cleaning windows.
The fatal falls have prompted the Manpower Ministry to consider enhancing the current four-hour safety course for maids with compulsory lessons on how to identify hazards when working at heights.
In the past five years, 14 employers have been fined for putting their maids in the way of danger. In that period, 24 maids fell to their deaths while working. Another 45 fell, but survived.
The police are investigating the new case, which they have classified as an unnatural death.
(according to the JG)
(The fatal falls have prompted the Manpower Ministry to consider enhancing the current four-hour safety course for maids with compulsory lessons on how to identify hazards when working at heights. Unbelievable, you would think they leave the cleaning of windows in high-rise appartments to window cleaners, either that or those yokels should have a go at it themselves of ois het " ik heb liever dat jij valt dan ik" ) siK
vr 20 apr 2012 - 7:26
