“Woman who beat maid jailed 25 months”, “10 weeks’ jail for a maid who bit six-month-old boy”. We Singaporeans are all too familiar with this kind of news headlines as we observe an increasing trend of such incidents taking place in the past few years.
Due to our busy lifestyles and the increase in ageing population, Singapore’s need for domestic helper is still ever-growing. However, the increase in such awful incidents occurring between helpers and employers would deter many away from hiring a helper when they need one. Many of these incidents would have been prevented if there were better communication efforts and a mutually respectful relationship between these helpers and their employers. Therefore, we should learn to take the necessary steps and actions to improve communication efforts and relationship with our helpers to keep the household environment safe for our family members and helpers too. There are many elements to improving the relationship and below are some recommendations by us.
