According to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the major maid agencies here, the top complaint about maids in Singapore is that they bring their boyfriends home.
The other concerns high on the list include stealing and hitting the employers’ children.
On average, MOM receives up to 200 complaints every month about maids and MOM said that this is generally good seeing as it is only 0.1% of all the maids employed in Singapore. As of December 2013, there were 214,500 maids in Singapore.
Complaints made against maids are usually kept on file and prospective employers will be informed about any past complaint made against the maid that they wish to hire. The exact nature of the complaint is not disclosed.
If a past complaint is flagged, the employer needs to sign a letter to confirm that they are aware of the complaint in order to apply for the maid’s work permit.
Complaints make it very hard for a maid to be hired again as most prospective employers will choose not to hire a maid who has previously received a complaint.
While employers are able to call previous employers to find out what the complaint was about, most will just say no to the maid and look for others instead.