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Singapore, Singapore – Poe Ei San, a Burmese immigrant, cannot find a nurse job in affluent Singapore. So she cleaned the house instead.
Every day, the 25-year-old Yangon University graduate washes the toilet, wipes the floor, and wipes the kitchen. “Due to Myanmar’s low salaries and instability, many young people are looking for jobs overseas,” she said.
Poe is one of the few household cleaners hired through the city-state’s Household Service Program (HSS). HSS is a four-year pilot program that allows companies to hire migrant workers from countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka. To provide part-to provide regular cleaning services for the family. The company provides part-time home cleaning services for about 20-25 Singapore dollars (15-19 US dollars) per hour, ranging from 2 hours to 8 hours.
The plan is mainly to meet the need for part-time help, thereby reducing Singapore’s dependence on live-in foreign domestic helpers (called maids in many families). In 2019, about 250,000 women were employed in Singaporean households, covering about one-fifth of households, compared with one-third 30 years ago.
The coronavirus pandemic has made it more difficult to recruit domestic workers from overseas, so Singapore made HSS permanent this month and expanded its scope to include more part-time services such as grocery shopping, car wash and pet care. It also allows companies to hire cleaners from Cambodia.
In announcing the move last month, the Ministry of Manpower stated that the plan “helps support the demand for part-time domestic services.”
Poe Ei San, a 25-year-old Burmese immigrant, is one of the few household cleaners employed by HSS in Singapore [Zachary Tang/Al Jazeera]Many mainly dual-income families in this city-state already rely heavily on their homes to help with housework, cooking, and caring for elderly relatives, children and pets; women work long hours on their own, with few rest periods to earn meager salaries.
They are mainly confined to the family and are also at risk of abuse. Between 2017 and 2020, there were about 270 police reports of abuse of domestic workers each year.
Although HSS has not set out to reduce abuse, the formalization of housework as cleaners provides higher remuneration and rights than domestic workers.
Enter the cleaner
The cleaning company said that as families find it more difficult to hire live-in domestic workers, the demand for part-time cleaning has increased.
According to data from the Ministry of Manpower, the number of companies registered with HSS jumped from 50 in 2019 to 76 in 2021. HSS cleaners now serve more than 10,000 households.
Unlike domestic workers, cleaners serve multiple families, live in their own residences, and are protected by the Employment Law, which stipulates a maximum of 44 hours of contractual working hours per week, at least 1.5 times the overtime pay, and 7 days of work. Annual leave, 14 sick days and weekly rest days. They can earn up to 1,600 Singapore dollars (1,193 US dollars) per month.
At the same time, domestic workers are subject to regulations and only require “acceptable” accommodation and “adequate” rest. Most people earn no more than 650 Singapore dollars (US$485) per month and work 7 days a week, sometimes as long as 14-16 hours a day. They are not legally entitled to annual leave, sick leave or overtime pay.
The Ministry of Manpower, which declined to interview, previously stated on its website that “because domestic workers work in a family environment and their family habits are different, it is difficult to enforce the provisions of the Employment Law for domestic workers”.
Experts say that the benefits of HSS are higher salaries, stronger protection, and lower risk of abuse because women do not need to live at home. HSS eliminates the overnight factor that makes domestic workers vulnerable to abuse because they may be isolated and refused to use the phone.
Amarjit Singh Sidhu, a lawyer who deals with the abuse of helper cases, said that because cleaners “have more interaction with society”, they have “more opportunities” to report any abuse.
Eugene Tan, associate professor of law at Singapore Management University, agrees that migrant workers have better living arrangements.
“Living separately from the family where they work will reduce the chances of abuse and abuse of cleaners. A clearer distinction between residence and place of work can better protect the rights, welfare and interests of cleaners.”
Cleaning Supervisor Phyo Phyo Ei, 36 years old, worked as a domestic worker in Singapore for nearly 10 years before switching to household cleaning [Zachary Tang/Al Jazeera]However, these benefits are limited by the small number of participants.
There are no public statistics, but Zhong Jingjing, managing director of Helpling, the HSS cleaning booking platform, estimates that there are about 1,000 to 2,000 cleaners in Singapore.
She added that of the approximately 90% of cleaners on the platform, Myanmar women who were formerly domestic workers accounted for approximately 90%. Most domestic workers in Singapore come from Myanmar, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Dominic Lim, sales and marketing manager of the cleaning company Fresh Cleaning, added that the Myanmar community in Singapore considers the role of cleaning to be preferable to the life of a domestic helper.
Abuse of domestic helpers is a hazard, Poe is very clear, read the February news The death of Piang Ngaih DonThe Burmese immigrant endured 14 months of torture and hunger at the hands of her Singaporean employer; Pion was burned, beaten, and suffocated, lost 15 kilograms, and slept on the floor for the last few nights, locked in a window frame. superior.
When she saw the headlines, Poe was looking for work on sovereign islands in Myanmar. “I don’t want to be a maid after that,” she said. “No one will know if your employer is bullying you.”
Still at risk
Although domestic workers have fixed wages, the wages of cleaners include basic wages, food and transportation allowances, overtime pay and incentives. Therefore, their income may be two to three times that of live-in workers.
However, despite the improvement in conditions, HSS cleaners are still at the mercy of their employers.
(Al Jazeera)Research and advocacy manager Jaya Anil Kumar said: “Although cleaners under HSS may not be as isolated as live-in domestic workers, workers protected by the Employment Law still face low wages, Recruitment costs are high and it is difficult to change employers.” Welfare group Humanitarian Immigration Economics Organization.
The organization helps 10 to 20 cleaners solve problems including overwork and unpaid or underpaid wages each year.
Jaya said that their employment path is also at risk, which is almost no different from domestic workers, which has exacerbated the power imbalance between the company and migrant workers.
These women are mainly recruited by agencies in the country of origin, which charge a fee, place them in a Singapore company and send them to the island.
Interviews with cleaners surfaced, including complaints such as excessive recruitment fees, passports being taken away by cleaning companies for “safekeeping”, and employers not paying overtime.
She added that the HSS also did not address Singaporeans’ perceptions that migrant workers are inferior and domestic work is inferior. These are the core causes of domestic worker abuse.
“Many employers believe that migrant workers should be grateful for finding a job. There is a sense of ownership of workers,” she said. “The abuse occurs because employers have devalued domestic work and domestic workers.”
The cleaning company stated that they had not seen cases of physical abuse, although some admitted that verbal abuse would occur. About 700 customers on Helpling’s blacklist were blacklisted for abuse and failure to pay bills, and cleaning company United Channel Construction & Facility Services stated that 30% of customers yelled at cleaners.
Jaya said that more efforts must be made to maintain housework and its key role in helping Singaporean society to function smoothly.
The Ministry of Manpower of Singapore has stated that it will assess whether it can further expand the scope of HSS services. Earlier this year, Josephine Teo, the former Minister of Manpower, said that nursing care might be such a service-but some people are worried about the risk of abuse.
In addition to household cleaning, the HSS program will expand to grocery shopping, pet care, and car washing [Zachary Tang/Al Jazeera]Margaret Thomas, president of the Women’s Action and Research Association, said domestic workers caring for the elderly are often overworked and vulnerable to alleged abuse, especially those with dementia.
United Channel manager Flora Sha said that people with dementia can be violent, throwing things and pulling on the hair of caregivers.
Despite these warnings, Poe was excited about the possibility of engaging in nursing work. She still dreams of becoming a nurse and hopes that this experience will help her find a job in a hospital in Myanmar when she returns home.
“I know that old people may abuse me, but I will be patient with them,” she said. “Under HSS, the company is in charge of personnel, so I am confident that it is better than being a maid.”
This story was funded and trained by the Friedrich Naumann Freedom Foundation.
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