Poll: Weekly day off for domestic workers?

47
97

I was shocked when I read that a recent SMS poll conducted by The Star revealed that 76 per cent of 769 respondents were against the idea of allowing domestic workers (maids) a day off every week.

Let’s see if you are any different from the readers of The Star. Hopefully, we can get a similar number of respondents here and then we can compare the results…

[poll id=”39″]

Please help to support this blog if you can.

Read the commenting guidlelines for this blog.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

47 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Anil Netto
20 Jun 2009 5.22am

New blog post: Should domestic workers be given a day off every week? http://bit.ly/qIszw

SoPoMalaysia®
20 Jun 2009 6.22am

Poll: Weekly day off for domestic workers?: A recent SMS poll conducted by The Star showed that 76 per cent of 7.. http://tinyurl.com/lrg7f4

xBlog®
20 Jun 2009 7.59am

Poll: Weekly day off for domestic workers? – http://tinyurl.com/lrg7f4

James Loh
James Loh
24 Jun 2009 10.22am

continue previous comment …

With the strangers obtain information about the employers from the maid, there is a chance they’ll rob my place. Why do I believe that? My friend’s house were rob by the maid, and another friend’s maid left the house with the strangers. Thus, can you gurantee my family safety.

James Loh
James Loh
24 Jun 2009 10.20am

If we allowed the maid to be off for a day. There is a chance she’ll leave the job. Also, she’ll interact with strangers. There is a chance which the stranger might try to obtain informations about the employers.

Jerusalem-X
23 Jun 2009 11.05am

Bob,

You must have been very unloved as a child to grow up to be a person of such low character.

Good luck. You sound like you need it.

I almost puked out my cafe latte I read you describing Anil as a man of leisure.

Low character and ignorant too. Killer combination mate.

Andrew I
Andrew I
22 Jun 2009 7.46pm

Could be, Suzy. I had a horrible nightmare last night in which I was the new maid for a maid abuser who won her appeal against her conviction and she was chasing after me with a super hot iron because I called her Wonderwoman.

jeff
jeff
22 Jun 2009 6.25pm

Yes i agree with you andrew, well at least Singaporean Tai Tai know how to de stress themselves by going to the Toy Boys . So is malaysian men really bored in bed that this ricochet happen to the maid?
This is a long study now. Women in Malaysia lack of sex knowledge ???

Suzy
Suzy
22 Jun 2009 3.38pm

Andrew, what is the matter with you?

Semalam, tidur tak nyenyak ka? 😉

LBJ
LBJ
22 Jun 2009 3.03pm

We have a saying. Beware of Penang women.

Andrew I
Andrew I
22 Jun 2009 12.42pm

Come to think of it, it’s not just maids who get abused. Husbands get it as well.

Beware the Amazon.

tuah
tuah
22 Jun 2009 11.58am

Malaysians in general are inhuman and cruel. Look at the way treated the maids. Look at the way they treated the dogs in Pulau Ketam.
I fully agree with the Indonesian govt to stop sending maids to Malaysia. Malaysians must learn to pick up their own garbage.
Now is the time to do this.

anna brella
anna brella
22 Jun 2009 5.19am

Some in the US have used smart-alec rationalisations and euphemistic semantics to argue that the technique called waterboarding used during the interrogation of prisoners should not be considered by others as being a method of “torture” as it was only an “enhanced/professional interrogation technique”. Yeah right. The short answer to such opportunistic, hypocritical, asinine inhuman shite from such twisted minds or pointless, depraved intelligence is that “okey dokey, let’s see what you say about waterboarding not being a method of torture after you have been subjected to a nice, warm dose of it yourself for, say, twenty minutes a go”.… Read more »

Andrew I
Andrew I
22 Jun 2009 5.01am

Jeff, I think basically Malaysian women are not quite sexually fulfilled and that’s the reason they lash out at their maids.

Either that or it’s period time. Whenever I meet an obnoxious woman, I enquire whether they’re getting enough or it’s that time of month.

The publicised cases have all involved women, so don’t say I’m sexist. I once saw a black eyed maid and the proprietress seemed like a nice lady.

Lily
Lily
22 Jun 2009 1.01am

Kathar, Employers don’t know the exact age of the maids. All these infos about their age are done in their countries. Whether you like it or not, we are sort of ‘cheated’ by them.It’s up to their countries’ agents to declare the age they deem appropriate to enter to that particular country’s requirement. It their passport says, they are 24 yrs old and in actual, they are only 16 yrs old, is it out fault? Employers innocently believe the infos in their passport. (I employed my maid because her portfolio says she’s 24 yrs old but, a day later she… Read more »

jeff
jeff
22 Jun 2009 12.25am

We once laugh at Singaporean for being a kiasu . As far i am concern , most malaysian were now behaving like that already. I couldn’t bear those housewives who kept shouting at the maid the whole day and i dare to reveal that some of housewife will haunt the maid till they are cornered. first thing in their mind when something lost is to blame the maid. Most of them are woman and usually men are more patient . Majority of the woman have will look for cat fight and inner suspicion when managing the same gender . Authorities… Read more »

siew eng
siew eng
21 Jun 2009 8.52pm

another gov’t failure – our poor record of human and democratic rights.

siew eng
siew eng
21 Jun 2009 8.49pm

where did this sense of ‘entitlement’ to another human being’s time, that one has the right to decide how another should be living (or not, apparently, in this case) come from? i believe it’s from the failing state that malaysia is turning out to be. all the problems cited by those opposing the proposal stem from the failure of the government to keep inflation in check, to promote gender neutrality (how about husbands helping with the housework, and forget about blaming their lack of control for divorces arising from affairs!), to have fair laws for workers so that locals would… Read more »

The Penquin
The Penquin
21 Jun 2009 5.12pm

ha ha Sitiawan…i am no dog…i don’t bark..as for the tree i think the dogs will just pee beside it…Yes you may be right that most employers treat their maids well but when you pay them for work done they are workers and why can’t they have a day off ? Sometimes they have to wake up early to work and ends quite late in the night…not 5 or 6pm. The other day i was having lunch at one of the cafes and overheard two two teenagers’ conversation as they were talking a bit loud. One of them even mentioned… Read more »

Katharina Sri (former: Noor Aza Othman)
Katharina Sri (former: Noor Aza Othman)
21 Jun 2009 4.14pm

RachelJanz, so you tried to justify your abuses by claiming you were good to those teenage domestic workers (you don’t hit them, only scold them – so it’s ok?!) despite that you’re not supposed to hire child-labour! Provide your proof that domestic workers in Germany are abused – because if they do, believe me, those employers will go to JAIL; and pay compensation besides. In Ireland, there is even a trade union of domestic workers!And domestic workers only work 8 hours like normal workers. So, you’re the master of this slave child-labour but you’re equal to them is it?! By… Read more »

jeff
jeff
21 Jun 2009 3.58pm

the maid can have the right to choose to have one day off or be paid double for the holiday. Some of these cruel employers are looking for cheapest mean or excuses for not giving a day off to the maid by saying how poor they are , this and that… Jeezz… if you are poor , pls don’t hire maid and god didn’t ask you to be stupid in the first place for having so many children. If you can’t give a maid day off than pay for it. Im sure this sick cruel malaysian will have an excuses… Read more »

sitiawan
sitiawan
21 Jun 2009 3.27pm

No doubt there are good and bad maids.
There are also good and bad employers.

Looks like everyone only talking about good maids and bad employers.
Find some stories about maid abusing the children of their employer, stealing stuff and etc anything bad to do with maids.

The Penquin you are barking at the wrong tree. Open your eyes wider. Not giving a day off doesn’t mean it’s inhumane. As i said they have plenty of time to rest whenever they are free. Most of the employers doesn’t ill-treat their maid(s).

jungleboy
jungleboy
21 Jun 2009 10.53am

By all means allow the maids to have a ‘rest’ day but not to roam out of the house. It is a well-known fact that maids are wooed by indon workers from outside the fence when the employer was not around. We had heard many maids got pregnant and dumping the new-born.

pei ling
pei ling
21 Jun 2009 10.52am

Hello, I think we should go a step further and give the domestic workers a CHOICE to choose 1) whether they would want a day off and 2) which day they want off. I think they should definitely be given a day off (robot meh, machine work so long and hard oso cepat rosak lah, apa lagi human beings)…But I think those who offer to work on their day off (perhaps to help their employer in shop/look after their kids etc) should be compensated. Similar to how normal employees get compensation for working on weekends (takkan we M’sians wanna be… Read more »

Homebody
Homebody
21 Jun 2009 10.16am

Katharina, Malaysians are no more inhumane than any other race in any other country. As far as this “maid” issue is concerned it is not as straight forward as you imagine it to be. I can assure you that of the high percentage who say no to day-off for the “maid”, many are in fact very good employers who care for their families’ welfare — and consequently their maid’s welfare. Frankly, these employers haven’t got a choice but to take care of these “maids” with kids glove — what is a day off when required? Their children and their aged… Read more »