Employers responsible for maid deaths

Employers responsible for maid deaths

SINGAPORE: Employers could be jailed if their maids fall out of high-rise apartments while working, the Singapore government said on Monday.

Singapore, an island republic of 4 million people, has about 140,000 foreign domestic workers, mostly from impoverished neighboring countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia. They often wind up overworked and have little personal freedom.

Abuse of maids has become a well publicized issue, particularly the tragedy of workers who plunge to their deaths while hanging out laundry or cleaning windows. Most Singaporeans live in high-rise apartments.

The Ministry of Manpower said last month that 99 domestic workers fell from buildings between January 1999 and June 2003.

"If you tell (a maid) to climb out the window and she falls, I will take you to task because it is reckless abandonment," Ng Eng Hen, the acting manpower minister, was quoted as saying in the Straits Times. The ministry confirmed his comments on Monday.

From January 2001 to June 2003, Singapore jailed 22 people for abusing their maids, Ng said, adding that he would jail "twice or three times the number" to halt the mistreatment of domestic workers. -- AP