Employers' top three peeves about their maids

SINGAPORE - Bringing boyfriends home, stealing and hitting the children are the top three complaints employers make about their maids, major agencies here told The Straits Times.

These complaints are lodged with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), which receives an average of about 200 complaints a month, a spokesman said yesterday, in response to queries.

The figure represents less than 0.1 per cent of the 214,500 maids here as of December, MOM said.

The ministry has been collecting feedback on maids since 2010 to help employers make more informed hiring decisions.

Complaints against a maid may be flagged to prospective employers when they apply for a work pass for a maid on the MOM online work-permit system.

They have to sign a letter to confirm that they know of the complaint if they decide to hire the maid.

Prospective employers will not be told the nature of the complaint, but can call the maid's previous boss for details. About half of them leave phone numbers.

Agents say most maids with a complaint against them are not hired here again. Orange Employment agency owner Shirley Ng said: "They won't get a second chance to work in Singapore."

Best Home Employment agency owner Tay Khoon Beng said: "Most employers won't even call the previous employer to find out more. They just say no."

This article by The Straits Times was published in MyPaper, a free, bilingual newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.

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