Singapore steps up effort to protect housemaids

Singapore steps up effort to protect housemaids

Alexa Olesen, Associated Press, Singapore

Singapore's government detailed new measures to prevent the abuse
of household staff following the death of an Indonesian maid that
a top official said sparked "revulsion" throughout the city-
state.

The reforms do not, however, bring maids under legislation
that protects the basic rights of workers in Singapore.

The measures follow the conviction of a Singaporean man who
was accused of beating his 19-year-old Indonesian maid to death.

Ng Hua Chye, 47, was sentenced to 18 1/2 years in prison by a
court that heard how he starved the maid, beat her with the
handle of a hammer and scalded her with hot water.

Singapore's minister of state for education and manpower said
Thursday that the incident had greatly shaken Singapore's self-
image and had prompted people to ask how such a such a thing
could happen in a "civilized" and "educated" society.

"Outrage from the public, the press, and the government is
appropriate and spontaneous and it speaks of a sense of recoil
and revulsion," said Ng Eng Hen, according to a transcript of his
remarks released by the Ministry of Manpower on Friday.

In response to that outcry, Singapore's government will
introduce a compulsory orientation course for first-time
employers of foreign domestic workers and require that all maid
agencies be accredited by the government, the minister was quoted
as saying.

The government does not, however, plan to bring maids under
the Employment Act, the basic law regulating the conditions of
workers in Singapore, the ministry said Friday in response to
questions from The Associated Press about the new measures.

"The government has resisted calls for imposing standard terms
on employers because it is not practical to regulate specific
aspects of domestic work including hours of work, rest day work
and work on public holidays," it said in a statement.

Women from across Asia flock to Singapore to escape poverty
but often wind up overworked and with no personal freedom.

Employers are encouraged to keep maids' passports so they
can't run away. Many maids get no days off and are prohibited
from leaving their employers' home without permission. Some sleep
on kitchen floors.

Singapore, a wealthy country of 4 million people, employs
about 140,000 foreign maids, mostly from the Philippines,
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand.

According to the Manpower Ministry, there were 157 reported
cases of maid abuse in 1997, 89 in 1998, 82 in 1999, 87 in 2000,
and 41 last year.