Straits Times May 14, 2012
Singapore. Three Indonesian maids have sought refuge at their embassy after their employers put their lives at risk by forcing them to clean windows and hang out laundry, they claimed.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) told The Straits Times that it is now looking into the claims of one of the maids, Yuli Primariyanti, 24. She claimed that her employer made her stand on window sills to clean the exterior window panes of a two-storey bungalow in the east.
Indonesian Embassy Counsellor Sukmo Yuwono said the other two maids declined to submit formal complaints to MOM. Instead, they decided to end their contracts and return to Indonesia.
This year, eight Indonesian maids have died after falling while cleaning windows, hanging out laundry, or hanging up curtains in high-rise flats.
Following the spate of deaths, Sukmo urged maids to contact him if they were being made to clean windows and hang out laundry in dangerous ways. The three maids said they ran away as they were each afraid of becoming another casualty. Yuli said she went to her agency on May 3 but was told to return to her employer’s home. Unwilling to do so, she went to the embassy the next day.
She had been working for her employer, a housewife, for about two weeks. It was her first time working in Singapore, she said, adding that she is from a village in East Java where there are few high-rise buildings.
She said: “I told my employer I was scared to stand on the window sills to clean the windows on the second storey of the house. But she told me I had to do it or she would send me back to Indonesia.”
She added that she was made to work for more than 14 hours every day. She has decided to return to Indonesia once investigations into her complaint are completed.
Yuli’s employer, who is in her 50s and declined to be named, denied her allegations. “She also did not tell me she was unhappy, and just ran away,” she said.
An MOM spokesman said it is currently establishing the facts of Yuli’s case, adding: “Once a case has been established, investigations can then commence. At this point, it is premature to come to any conclusions.”
Sukmo said he has not decided what to do about Yuli’s employer. He had said previously that employers or agents found to have endangered the lives of Indonesian maids would be blacklisted and barred from hiring them.
The other two maids also claimed they had raised concerns about safety to their employers but were ignored. They went to the embassy on May 2.
Sunarti Warkin, 30, said she was told to stand on a stool and stretch out of the window to clean the exterior window panes of a 15th-floor flat in Bukit Merah every day.
Anni Puji Rahayu, 28, said she struggled to balance heavy laundry on long bamboo poles outside her employer’s fourth-floor flat in Tampines.
Sukmo said he expects more maids to approach the embassy for help.
Maid agents said maids usually run away for a combination of reasons, and it is unlikely that safety concerns were the only reason that compelled them to seek refuge at the embassy.
They said it was important that MOM ascertains if these are genuine cases of a maid’s life being endangered.
Best Home Employment director Tay Khoon Beng said: “The maid must be feeling quite desperate to want to run away to the embassy. But this should be the last resort. They should try to speak to their agent and employer and work things out or get a transfer.”
There are about 103,000 Indonesian maids in Singapore.
ma 14 mei 2012 - 3:42