Please Report Your Dead Window Cleaning Maid

Note: if your maid dies you need to report this to the Manpower Ministry within 12 hours of finding her.

Maid dies in fall from sixth-floor flat:  A maid died on Thursday after falling out of a sixth-floor window of her employers' flat. The 25-year-old Indonesian is believed to have been standing on a stool while cleaning the window in one of the bedrooms. Her employer had her back turned but heard the stool topple over, The Straits Times understands. When she realised the maid was no longer at the window she looked out and saw her lying at the bottom of the block in Toh Guan Road. The maid suffered head injuries and was pronounced dead shortly after the fall. When The Straits Times visited the flat last night, no one came to the door.

Maid survives 9-storey fall from Bukit Panjang flat: A maid survived a nine-storey fall from her employer's flat in Bukit Panjang on Friday afternoon, a day after another maid died when she fell from a sixth-floor window while cleaning it. Police confirmed the Friday incident, saying they responded to a call at 1.35pm that day about a woman who had fallen nine storeys at Block 534, Jelapang Road. She was found lying at the foot of the block, and was taken to the National University Hospital with fractures to her legs and pelvic bone, said a police spokesman. When The Sunday Times visited the employer's flat yesterday, the family declined to be interviewed, but said that the maid was not alone in the flat at that time. Shin Min Daily News reported that the maid was a 23-year-old Indonesian who was hired just over a month ago to work for the family. An eyewitness told the evening daily that the maid was found on the ground with bamboo poles and clothes beside her, and that she could have fallen out of the window while trying to retrieve laundry when it started to rain in the afternoon.

'Idiot' employers still making maids like this, clean windows - this way: A 'stomper' has but only harsh words to spare for employers who subject their maids to such dangerous acts like these, in spite of numerous reports of accidents happening, where maids hurt themselves or die when they fall from such great heights. Danny said, "I saw this maid cleaning window pane with a ladder...her body would sometimes lean out of the window so she could clean the out facing plane." "So many mishaps happen and yet those idiot employers still ask their maids to perform these dangerous tasks?"

A spate of fatal falls a few years ago involving maids who were cleaning windows, hanging laundry or even watering plants, prompted the Manpower Ministry to introduce a slew of initiatives to improve safety awareness. These included offering safety awareness courses and taking action against errant employers who failed to provide a safe working environment for these maids. Under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, errant employers can be fined $5,000 and jailed up to six months. They will also be disallowed from hiring another foreign domestic worker.

Foreign Domestic Workers (FDW) have to attend a compulsory half-day course to raise their awareness of home safety and safety precautions to take when carrying out routine household chores such as cleaning of windows. The cost of the course is SGD 20.00 ($15). Note: if your maid dies you need to report this to the Manpower Ministry within 12 hours of finding her.