By: Jolovan Wham
The Ministry of Manpower has a “feedback” system which allows an employer to recommend that a worker not be employed here if s/he is undesirable or “bad”. I have always been opposed to this because MOM’s decision to accept such feedback is based on the employer’s story only without any proper investigation.
I don’t think such a feedback system should exist, whether it is a complaint by an employer or a worker. Claims and complaints need to be investigated properly. But now I have decided to turn the tables and write negative feedback about abusive employers to MOM.
What triggered this? This afternoon, despite acknowledgement by MOM that an employer (who is an SMU professor with a Phd from MIT) had pressured a domestic worker to kneel on the floor to say sorry for mistakes made, and had to write 500 times “I will follow what grandma tells me to” as punishment, she was still unfairly terminated by the employer and had to return home.
Another domestic worker was threatened and had a knife pointed in her direction by the employer. Despite filing a complaint at MOM, she was told she had “no case” and had to return home.
Why should migrant workers have to suffer in silence when such injustice happens? Why should you have to lose your job when your employer points a knife at you, humiliates and tortures you mentally? We need to take action.
If abusive employers can submit negative feedback about you for no good reason and MOM blacklists you without thorough investigations, it is time to fight back. I don’t like this feedback system. But it looks like we have no choice because too many migrant workers have been unfairly punished by it.
You can feedback an abusive employer and recommend that s/he be barred from hiring workers to the following email: mom_wpd@mom.gov.sg. If you are a domestic worker and need help with this, I’m happy to assist you. HOME Singapore
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Republished from Jolovan’s FB.