Singapore Expats

My girlfriend is an Indonesian maid. She wants to leave her helper job. It is after the "unlimited replacement" period so her employer has to go through the full agency hire process and pay the full fee again for a replacement maid. Now the employer is saying nutty things like "you and your boyfriend might steal things on the way out" and, when angry, things like "you will be blacklisted and never be able to return to SG." Part of me thinks this is just frustration, that no one would lie to MOM just to be a jerk. Until she quit, the employer loved her. Girlfriend is not pregnant and hasn't violated Employment Rules or Employment Contract. My guess is the employers want my girlfriend to pay part or all of the agency fee for the new helper, with result that she worked for free during her employment here in SG. Has anyone seen this type of thing. Her agency is telling her to blow it off and ignore the employer or at most pay some of the fee if the employer provides a letter of recommendation. This type of thing would get an employer arrested or at least a lawsuit where I grew up, but maybe this is how Singaporeans roll. Any advice? Give in to the shakedown? Or blow it off?

You don't need an agency to hire a new maid, in fact I've gone away from agencies completely in the last few years as the cost is BS. The TOTAL cost is paper work on MOM which costs $30 AND a new insurance policy.

If your gf wants to be reasonable then:

1. Find some transfer maids to recommend from her friends and set up interviews (they need to be in country and they need the permission of their current employer if they are on contract). If everyone is effecient you can do a transfer in a week (the waiting time is the MOM side of things - you can buy the insurance policy instantly online from NTUC but MOM only batch process applications and docs every 24 hours). The replacement helper needs a recent medical (< ? months) which is possibly another cost and delay.

2. Pay the $30 for the xfer cost or not.

The policy may be transferable or refundable or not. That's unfortunately where most of the DIY cost is ($300 to $400); when my last long term helper quit at short notice (less than the contracted period) she agreed to pay part of the insurance policy as leverage to leave quickly for a job in Dubai. For helpers I've terminated I've carried that cost. You decide (note - policy life is 14 months or 26 months typically).

Thanks for the info, my gf is helping them now find a replacement.

How real do you think the "blacklist threat" is?

From other research I found they can put on record with MOM a bad performance review that next employer can see, but blacklist requires a crime, pregnancy or Employment Law violation. Also, easy to file complaint against the employee with MOM that (if acted on) can prevent them from hiring new maids.

I don't know about the blacklist but suspect it's an idle threat. Better to play nice perhaps.

There are many jobs advertised on Facebook from people moving to Singapore early in the new year and looking to get a helper. She could try there

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