Maid asks when should her employer send her back to the agency before cancelling her work permit

A maid whose work permit was about to be cancelled took to social media asking when an employer should turn their helper over to the agency.

In her post, the maid wrote: “I just want to ask, when is the right time for employer to turn over her helper to agency. The cancellation of her work permit is Dec 24. Thank you”.

According to the Manpower Ministry, “Depending on which comes first, you must cancel the Work Permit:

• Within 1 week after the last day of work.
  OR
• 1 day after the Work Permit expires”.

Additionally, “Instead of cancelling your helper’s Work Permit, you can consider transferring her directly to another employer or through an employment agency”. 

Here’s what others in the group said:

Another foreign domestic helper asked other helpers and employers for their advice on what to do when she had already returned home, but her work permit had not been cancelled.

In an anonymous post to Facebook group FDW in Singapore (working conditions forum), the helper wrote on Friday (Jul 22) that she had already returned to her hometown two weeks ago and was trying to find a new employer with another agency. She explained that she was not comfortable with her current employer and agency.

However, because her current employer had not yet cancelled her work permit, she wrote that she was not able to find a new employer.

In her post, she added that though she had messaged her current employers many times, there was no response from them. When she called her agent as well, she said they did not care.

She wrote that even when she was working in Singapore, she found that her agency did not care about her but would only consider what her employers were saying.

“I’ve been working with my current employer for 3 yers+ but i really cant tahan alrdy then ask to go back.. He send me back but not cancel my permit”, she wrote in her post.

Asking others for help on what she should do, she said that she needed to be able to earn money again in order to support her family.

Maid went back hometown cos she can’t stand her employer, but her work permit was not cancelled, so she’s unable to work for another employer, agency doesn’t care