Victoria's Story*
First Employer: Overwork
When working with her first employer, Victoria felt very overworked. She had to wake up at 6am, and rarely ended work before 10pm. Whenever she tried to rest during the day, her employer would give her more work to do. While she was told prior to her employment that there would be only two individuals in the house, the employers’ family came over a lot, and she also had to tend to their needs, adding to her workload. When she asked for a transfer, she was denied one as her employers told her they had spent a lot of money on her COVID quarantine costs. After almost a year, Victoria could no longer tolerate her working conditions and came to HOME.
Second Employer: Abuse and Intimidation
Victoria eventually got a transfer and moved on to her second employer. However, this was not the end of Victoria’s struggles. Five months after leaving HOME’s shelter, Victoria was back. This time, she was referred by the police. According to Victoria, she was physically abused and had items thrown at her. She also said her employer also threatened and intimidated her: she told Victoria that nobody in Singapore could help her, and if she wanted to be repatriated, she would suffer physical injury. Whenever Victoria made a mistake, her employers told her that she would be sent to prison.
Victoria told us that she was also emotionally abused: she was called names such as ‘b**** dog’, ‘f****** idiot’ and ‘stupid’, and had her intelligence insulted. Her employer also berated and made demeaning comments about her parents. The employer also confiscated Victoria’s phone and then proceeded to block all of Victoria’s family members and wiped the phone of all of its memory to limit her communication with her family.
After Victoria left her employer, she felt relieved that she no longer had to live in fear. However, her relief was short-lived. Months after Victoria had left her employer, her employer filed a police case accusing Victoria of inappropriately touching her daughter. Victoria was devastated – as she was dealing with the stress of being part of one police investigation as an alleged victim, she now had another to grapple with, this time as an alleged accused person. This compounded her anxieties of having to navigate police investigations in an unfamiliar and foreign country.
Outcome
Victoria was granted the permission to seek alternative employment whilst the police investigated her cases. Eventually, Victoria learnt that both her cases had concluded, and was especially relieved to hear that there was no further action being taken on the case that her employers had put on her. She finally received closure after feeling anxious and uncertain about her future for a long time.
Recommendations
Throughout her employment in Singapore, Victoria was caught in a cycle of exploitation and violence. Even as she left one exploitative employment situation, she found herself in another. This is not unique to Victoria.
We make the following recommendations to help stop the cycles of exploitation and violence faced by MDWs:
Allow MDWs to switch employers freely so that they are able to report and reject abuse and exploitation. This also reduces MDWs’ dependence on their employers, which has the potential to increase their vulnerability.
Include MDWs under the Employment Act so that working hours are regulated and they are given basic labour protections.
Increase the frequency of mandatory rest days so that MDWs can seek timely help.
*Worker’s name has been changed to protect her identity
**This story is as told to us by the worker.