| Indonesia seeks to ban on window cleaning after 8 maids fall to death
Eight Indonesian maids have fallen to their deaths from high-rise apartments in Singapore this year, and the Indonesia Embassy said Tuesday it is pushing for a ban on cleaning outside windows. Singaporeans don't value them, don't treasure them as much as they should. That's somebody's daughter. Many Singaporeans who hire maids would likely resist a ban on chores such as cleaning windows or hanging laundry, said Theresa Low, who has employed Indonesian maids for 10 years. "Singaporeans want to get their money's worth," Low said. Local media have published photos of maids squatting on windowsills, crawling on ledges or reaching dangerously off-balance to clean window exteriors of high-rise apartment buildings. "When you are used to a very simple life in the village, (there's) no such thing as a high-rise building," said Mareyeami, an Indonesian who has been a maid in Singapore for six years. Last week, a court fined an employer 5,000 Singapore dollars ($4,000) and barred her from hiring domestic workers in the future after a maid fell and died from her fifth-floor apartment last year while cleaning windows standing on a stool. Eight maids, all Indonesian, have died after falling out of windows while working this year, five of whom were cleaning windows, Singapore's Manpower Ministry said. "Sometimes they know something is dangerous, but they do it because they want to work hard," said Kartinah Yawikarta, a maid from Indonesia who has worked in Singapore for nine years. But I always tell the other maids, it is better to go home with no money than to die. "It's upsetting. Singapore is under pressure to improve the working conditions of foreign maids, who live full-time in one in five households in the city-state of 5. It's very hard. I have to call the families of the maids who die. Maids from Indonesia are often eager to please the employer and may not speak up when a task is dangerous, Low said. "She was so scared," Yuwono said. It's a tragic thing. The Indonesian Embassy helped at least one maid return to Indonesia after her employer insisted she climb out on a ledge to clean windows, he said. Indonesia seeks to ban on window cleaning after 8 maids fall to death |
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Indonesia seeks to ban on window cleaning after 8 maids fall to death
