The Dignity of Honest Labor

Dignity of Honest Labor

By Riya Devgan

Around 1619 a Dutch ship docked at Point Comfort, which is located in Jamestown, off the boat went over a hundred soon to be African slaves. The slaves used to work for hours in the blazing hot fields, with no basic health care, or no  basic needs like water, food, furniture, salary provided. Many lives were so harsh, they committed suicide just to get away from the torture in their lives. Nowadays in the 21st century, many Cambodians, Indonesians or mainly Filipinos are forced to work  for people in their houses and adjust to their employers lifestyle just so they can make money for their children or family back home. Maids work hard all day long cleaning the house, cooking three meals a day, doing laundry, and buying groceries. Yet in return, they don’t get any breaks or day offs. Instead, they get constant physical abuse, hardly any food or water, broken or ripped bed sheets and pillows, and miniature beds with no aircon or fan. I believe maids should be treated equally and should be shown the respect they deserve by their employers .

In the month of May 2012 , Ami an Indonesian helper was told to clean the outsides of the windows on the 14th floor. To her surprise she lost balance and fell off and landed on the ground below and died . Sadly Ami was not the only maid in SIngapore to experience this pain. Over 15 maids have fallen off the window and died in Singapore. Therefore, I feel employers should treat their maids with respect and not force the maids to clean the window knowing how dangerous it is and how easy it is to fall off and lose balance.  In Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur two adults age 42-44 starved Cambodian helper Mey Sichan weighing only 26 kg while forcing her to keep working for them. Moreover, how do you think those two adults would feel if they were in her shoes, if they were to be starved by their employers, yet were forced to work for them ?  Furthermore, employers should have treated the helper equally, and should have given her food to. Considering she probably made the food.  Not only do employers show no respect nor treat them equal, some employers even abuse and harass the maids .Channel News Asia reported that an employer of a filipino maid threw a frying pan at the maids head, insulting her by pulling her shorts and underwear off and caning and splashing cooking oil into the maids hair and scalp. In other words, the employer had harmed the maid, showing no respect for her and treating her like a doll which is used to vent their anger out on. I remember I had seen a helper, she had just finished grocery shopping at Cold Storage, she was holding 3-4 bags full of food. However, the amount of grocery bags she was holding did not hide the clothes she was wearing. Ripped violet legging, muddy brown green flats with broken heels attached onto the bottom, her shirt was tight and all the bright colors were worn out leaving a dull gray shirt with ambiguous text on it. I could tell she hadn't changed her wardrobe for a long time. Her wallet was full on Filipino coins, but empty with zero SIngaporean money. She quickly opened an envelope which wrote “Mams Money” on it and payed for the groceries as she could tell she was holding up the line. Additionally, i'm not arguing that employers should present Loui Vuitton shirts, Channel jeans or Jimmy Choo flats, I'm just saying maids should be given enough money to support their basic lifestyle needs and still be able to have money left to buy decent clothes that weren't faded, or ripped, but  that are wearable yet comfortable at the same time.

To conclude, as the Golden Rule once quoted, “Treat others they way you want to be treated”, Employees of maids, show respect to maids because they are the ones who get everything done for you. They're the ones who make your beds, do your groceries, do your laundry, pick up after you, make your favorite dishes, walk your dog, clean your room and the least you could do is give them a little more respect. Particularly, when it comes to treating maids equally don't just use them as a frustration tool, or a doll to play with, don't take them for granted . Honestly, it is time for employees to start getting a taste of their medicine and change!