Pub boss fined for hiring maid as waitress

SINGAPORE - A pub director who hired a maid to work as a waitress was on Tuesday fined $2,500. Abdul Hannan Mawar's company was also banned from hiring foreign workers.

The Manpower Ministry (MOM) said this was the ninth case this year in which an employer was prosecuted for illegally hiring maids. Last year, 32 employers were convicted.

Acting on a tip-off in the latest case, an employment inspector found four maids moonlighting at the Moonshine Roadhouse pub in Orchard Towers on a Sunday last October.

Investigations revealed that one of the maids would frequent the pub on her Sunday rest days.

On one visit, she was asked by Abdul Hannan, 28, if she wanted to earn some extra income as a waitress.

She agreed, and like the other maids, was paid between $30 and $40 for working on Sundays from 2 to 8pm.

Defence counsel Christopher Bridges said that his client, who pleaded guilty to one charge of employing a foreigner without a valid work pass, mistakenly believed that the maid's work permit allowed her to be employed at the pub.

Four other charges were taken into consideration by the district judge when passing sentence.

Abdul Hannan, who could have been fined up to $15,000, or jailed for up to a year, or both, also admitted to abetting a fifth maid to work illegally by using her catering services.

The period of illegal employment spanned from May to October last year.

The maid who provided catering services paid a fine of $2,000 to settle her offence, while the rest were given a police warning. The maids will also be barred from working here after being deported.

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