Singapore Maids Banned From Cleaning Outside Windows

Filipino maid Joycelyn Bernadas started wearing a safety belt to clean the windows of her employer's seventh-storey flat two years ago. Her employer Joyce Chua bought the $15 belt from a hardware shop after reading reports of maids falling to their deaths.

Maid wears safety belt before cleaning windows (1.8m nylon rope bought by employer secures Filipino's waist to grille). Singapore. Whenever Filipino maid Joycelyn Bernadas cleans the windows of her employer’s seventh-storey flat, she slips on a safety belt first. The nylon rope secures her waist to the aluminium window grille. Her employer Joyce Chua bought the belt two years ago after reading reports of maids falling to their deaths while cleaning the outside of high-rise windows or hanging out clothes to dry. “She is like our own family member and we can’t afford to lose her,” said Chua, 49.

This year, 11 domestic workers have fallen from a height at work, of which eight died. All eight were Indonesians and had fallen to their deaths while cleaning the outside of windows or hanging laundry out to dry. The spate of accidents has prompted involvement from the Indonesian embassy. Chua bought the 1.8 millimeter belt for about $15 from a hardware shop — she is the director of an electrical and construction company, said her workers use industrial harnesses at work. Her family moved from a landed property to the five-room HDB flat in Chai Chee Avenue about four years ago.

Bernadas, 46, has worked for the family for 20 years. She takes care of Chua’s three daughters and does the housework — she cleans the outside of the windows once or twice a year. Bernadas said she was nervous when they moved to the flat and she had to clean the windows and put out the laundry, and is glad she has the belt. “I think wearing the safety belt is troublesome, but I feel safer with it,” she said. As to why the outside of windows had to be cleaned, Chua said: “A lot of dust collects on the windows over a year so we can’t just stop cleaning altogether. But we won’t force her to reach the parts of the windows that are too high up.”

She acknowledged that using the safety belt may not be a complete lifesaver as the hook is fastened to the aluminum grille, which is not as sturdy as one made of iron. The safety belt is also not approved for industrial use, and is suitable only for light cleaning jobs. “It is not 100 percent safe, but it is still a lifeline,” said Ms Chua. The Ministry of Manpower said that from 2007 to last year, 69 foreign domestic workers fell from a height at work, of which 24 were fatal and 45 non-fatal. The ministry said that maids who fell from heights varied across age, experience and nationalities.

Indonesian Embassy Counsellor Sukmo Yuwono said most of the eight Indonesian maids who fell to their deaths this year had been working in Singapore for less than a year. But incidents in previous years include experienced maids. “It is not an issue of how experienced the maids are,” Sukmo said. “The problem is that Singapore employers make their maids clean the outside of windows and hang laundry outside their apartments. “Employers in Hong Kong do not ask their maids to do things like this and we don’t have the problem of maids falling down there,” he added.

Various government leaders and maid activists have called for more to be done to prevent such deaths. Last month, Madam Halimah Yacob, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports, called for maids to be barred from opening window grilles and for employers to keep the keys to these grilles from their maids. From today, employers of new Indonesian maids working in high-rise buildings must also sign an undertaking to not allow them to hang clothes outside flats and clean the exterior of windows.

Maid agency owners said having the safety clause in the contract is a step in the right direction, but added that the onus is on employers to ensure their maids abide by it. “Employers should not ask their maids to do dangerous tasks. Sometimes, their maids may forget and employers have to remind them that their safety comes first,” said Best Home Employment director Tay Khoon Beng: But some employers said that the new rule was not practical. Sales manager Lynette Lim, 39, who employs an Indonesian maid, said: “How else are we going to hang our clothes?”

Police investigate the death of a 34-year-old Indonesian maid who fell from a window in Singapore recently.

New Rule in Singapore to Curb High-Rise Falls of Indonesian Maids: (Singapore). New Indonesian maids here will no longer be allowed to clean out-facing windows or hang laundry outside high-rise homes. This rule, released by the Indonesian government yesterday to The Straits Times, is part of a contract new maids and their employers will now have to sign before the maids can work here. It is effective from today.

Maid agencies and worker welfare groups said such a clause signals employers to take the maids’ safety seriously. Lawyers, however, said that while the contract may be binding to the signed parties, the rule would be difficult to enforce as no one could monitor what maids do. Responding to this development, the Ministry of Manpower yesterday said that employers should consider this rule when hiring Indonesian maids. It said that there is already a standard employment contract for all foreign maids in Singapore, and that it exercises “rigorous enforcement” when lapses in safety put lives at risk.

The new clause is part of a document that includes other clauses, such as on insurance and salary, and was formerly applicable only to maids renewing their contracts. The document was introduced by the Indonesian government about three years ago. Indonesia Embassy Counsellor Sukmo Yuwono said he hoped applying the clause to new maids would reduce the number of maid deaths from falling. This year, eight have died while cleaning windows, or putting laundry out to dry.

John Gee, an executive committee member of Transient Workers Count Too, a worker welfare group, said that although the Singapore Government was not obliged to enforce the agreement, it was still a step in the right direction. There are about 103,000 Indonesian maids in Singapore.

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