On top of the salary, the employer is expected to pay one round-trip ticket to her home country per year. These tickets are usually quite reasonably priced and most airlines have special discounted rates for maids. If the maid chooses not to return to her home country, the equivelant of the ticket should be paid out to her in cash. Furthermore, the employer is responsible for supplying the maid with a food and lodging, While most maids have one off-day per week (and some one off-day per month),as a employer they have additional costs for your live-in maid, they will have to pay a S$345 p/m levy to the government and a S$5000 immigration bond. This bond will only have to be paid in case your maid brakes the law or terms of her work permit. The government and agency in Singapore is taking a proactive approach for foreign domestic helper to help ease maid and make them feel at home in Singapore.
Tour to help ease maids in
New scheme includes info on local festivals, help on stress relief
By Melissa Sim
Foreign domestic workers being briefed yesterday on how Sir Stamford Raffles founded Singapore. They were on a tour of historical and cultural sites in Singapore as part of a programme to help them feel more at home here. -- PHOTO: MINISTRY OF MANPOWER
THIRTY foreign domestic workers were given a tour of a few historical and cultural sites in Singapore yesterday as part of a new programme to help them feel more at home in the country.
The four-month pilot 'Settling In' Programme (SIP), which started yesterday, is run by the Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Skills Training (Fast), a non-profit organisation.
The first stop of the morning was Raffles' Landing Site along the Singapore River. For many of the participants, this was their first glimpse of Singapore's founder Sir Stamford Raffles - not to mention, the river.
They also toured the Merlion Park, Chinatown and the Kampong Glam Heritage Village, passing through Little India and Orchard Road.
Earlier in the morning, they had learnt about Singapore's various festivals and received a quick Mandarin lesson of common terms and greetings.
Employer Peggy Leong, an administrative officer in her early 40s, said she immediately signed her helper up for the programme after reading about it in The Sunday Times
Trade in domestic helpers: Causes, mechanisms, and consequencesTHIRTY foreign domestic workers were given a tour of a few historical and cultural sites in Singapore yesterday as part of a new programme to help them feel more at home in the country.
The four-month pilot 'Settling In' Programme (SIP), which started yesterday, is run by the Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Skills Training (Fast), a non-profit organisation.
The first stop of the morning was Raffles' Landing Site along the Singapore River. For many of the participants, this was their first glimpse of Singapore's founder Sir Stamford Raffles - not to mention, the river.
They also toured the Merlion Park, Chinatown and the Kampong Glam Heritage Village, passing through Little India and Orchard Road.
Earlier in the morning, they had learnt about Singapore's various festivals and received a quick Mandarin lesson of common terms and greetings.
Employer Peggy Leong, an administrative officer in her early 40s, said she immediately signed her helper up for the programme after reading about it in The Sunday Times
