Seems to be everybody's favourite topic. My filipino maid absconded last year in July and we have still not managed to get a suitable replacement. We have decided that this time around it will be a Sri Lankan maid and we are waiting for the maid to join us. I agree with all the comments regarding filipino maids - they are great with cleaning but not good with children, they are proud, weekend offs are a must, they come from broken families and quickly build social networks and find boyfriends once they are here. One reads of maids being tortured etc in the houses of some of the locals; but if you ask expats you will hear a different story. My maid would read out the relevant line in her contract everytime we questioned her about any behaviour which we did not agree with - for eg if she came home late- after 9pm - on friday - her weekly off. It is only when my maid absconded that I realised that there is no mechanism in place to track absconding maids. It is a win-win situation for the maid- she gets many part time jobs with different families who do not know/do not care that she is absconding - she makes more money from these jobs and she has her freedom to do all the fun things she wanted to do - like party, spend time in night clubs etc. The employer/sponsor has to start all over again - look for another maid and also find someone to assist in the interim. While an employee working for an organisation has to go through tiresome processes to move from one employer to another, the maids have no such problems and the person who got them into the country is left to deal with the problem.
Seems to be everybody's favourite topic. My filipino maid absconded last year in July and we have still not managed to get a suitable replacement. We have decided that this time around it will be a Sri Lankan maid and we are waiting for the maid to join us. I agree with all the comments regarding filipino maids - they are great with cleaning but not good with children, they are proud, weekend offs are a must, they come from broken families and quickly build social networks and find boyfriends once they are here. One reads of maids being tortured etc in the houses of some of the locals; but if you ask expats you will hear a different story. My maid would read out the relevant line in her contract everytime we questioned her about any behaviour which we did not agree with - for eg if she came home late- after 9pm - on friday - her weekly off. It is only when my maid absconded that I realised that there is no mechanism in place to track absconding maids. It is a win-win situation for the maid- she gets many part time jobs with different families who do not know/do not care that she is absconding - she makes more money from these jobs and she has her freedom to do all the fun things she wanted to do - like party, spend time in night clubs etc. The employer/sponsor has to start all over again - look for another maid and also find someone to assist in the interim. While an employee working for an organisation has to go through tiresome processes to move from one employer to another, the maids have no such problems and the person who got them into the country is left to deal with the problem.