New law fails to guarantee domestic workers their rights

The right to three meals per day has been stipulated for the first time. But no limits have been placed on working hours and there is no obligation to provide one day of rest per week, while recruitment fees remain steep.

Singapore (AsiaNews/HRW) – A new law for migrant domestic workers in Singapore hardly improves their situation and perpetuates discrimination and exclusion of fundamental rights.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said the new law does not guarantee a weekly day off and it does not protect workers from excessive recruitment fees.

There are at least 160,000 foreign workers employed by families in Singapore, mostly from Indonesia, but also from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and India. They do not have the protection offered other workers and must often labour without pay for months to settle debts to employment agencies, which they need in order to find jobs. They work seven days a week, and often cannot even leave their workplace.  

Nisha Varia, a HRW expert, said: "Domestics should enjoy the same rights as other Singaporean workers, including a day off, limits on their working hours and caps on salary deductions."

The market is flourishing: there are more than 600 recruitment agencies that often deduct the first four to 10 months' wages out of a two-year contract. The law has nothing to say about this.    

At least, the new law improves workers' conditions by stipulating that they have the right to three daily meals, a right that has often been ignored. Further, domestic workers who leave or lose their job will be allowed to seek new employment instead of being immediately repatriated, as has happened so far. The new contract recommends, but does not require, that employers provide workers at least eight hours of continuous rest. Employers may either provide the domestic worker one to four days off per month, or pay them extra if they do not take a rest day. But HRW said there is the concrete risk that the extra work will not be compensated.

"Domestic workers need regular days off to rest, to escape the isolation at work and sometimes to report abuse," said Varia. "It's shocking that an advanced economy like Singapore does not guarantee domestic workers a weekly day off."  

• Singapore
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• domestics
• recruitment
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• migration