Term 3 Week 1 (Blogging Assignment)

Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports and veteran labour leader Ms Halimah Yacob called for the legislation of weekly days off for maids on June 19, speaking at a community sports festival at Singapore Polytechnic. She suggested that in the event that a rest day a week is not possible, maids should at least be compensated in cash. This has sparked heated debate amongst Singaporeans. Many Singaporeans feel that giving these domestic workers weekly days off might cause them to behave inappropriately such as being haughty or having boyfriends. However, there are also some who feel that having days off might result in positive effects such as them being able to work more efficiently due to the fact that they have a rest day. In my opinion, the giving of weekly days off for foreign domestic workers should be made compulsory in Singapore.

Maids are humans too, they are not robots. Which human does not need to rest after a long day of hard work. Yes, the maids are paid to do this hard work. But does it really mean that they cannot even have a single rest day? Even police watch dogs are given "off days" where they can rest in comfort. Furthermore, a rest might also motivate them to work harder. By giving these domestic workers off days, they would be able to rest well and retain a high level of efficiency. Hence, I feel that maids, as they are humans too, should have rights in resting after a week of hard work and hopefully, this act will motivate them to work harder.

On the contrary, some employers are scared that maids will turn for the worse and begin to corrupt their freedom allocated to them. In a Yahoo! poll pertaining to this topic, 46% expressed that they were against weekly day off for maids. These are mainly due to the negative thoughts. Such thoughts include that the employers are answerable for the maids' mannerisms and actions during their days off. This means that if a maid causes mischief or trouble outside the household, the employers are responsible. Furthermore, nowadays, maids have boyfriends and even 'husbands' in Singapore, resulting them in pregnancy. Hence, work efficiency is lost. Too much rest will also result in complacency which also poses problems such as slack in work.

In conclusion, I do not think that maids should be given weekly days off. Though they do need rest and freedom, too frequent of these privileges is not a good thing. I feel that Mdm Halimah should learn to view situations from the points of view of other parties instead of only just a few, so that she can make decisions where most can benefit. Maybe she can suggest a compulsory leave every once a month so that maids wont get complacent.