Woman gets fine for owing maid 3 years’ salary in ‘safekeeping’ arrangement
Wu Xiaoling, also known as Nur Nadhrah, leaving the State Courts on June 18, 2024.
SINGAPORE — For almost three years, a woman entered into an arrangement with her foreign domestic worker to “safekeep” all her salary instead of paying her monthly as required by law.
The employer, Wu Xiaoling, also known as Nur Nadhrah, ended up accumulating almost S$24,000 in arrears of wages to her maid. She later paid her, but only about half the amount.
On Tuesday (June 18) Wu, 38, was handed a S$10,000 fine after pleading guilty to two amalgamated charges of not paying the helper her salary no later than seven days after it was due.
Four other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
WHAT HAPPENED
The court heard that the domestic helper, Tumpik Astuik, had worked for Wu since Dec 4, 2018.
Wu had agreed to pay Tumpik a monthly salary of S$670 on the 29th of each month. The amount was raised to S$680 after the maid’s work permit was renewed on Aug 15, 2020.
The Employment of Foreign Manpower Act requires an employer to pay a helper her salary no later than seven days after it is due.
Sometime in June 2019, Tumpik asked Wu to “safekeep her monthly salaries in full”.
“They entered into a safekeeping arrangement whereby the accused would safekeep Tumpik’s salary until the end of Tumpik’s employment,” said manpower ministry prosecutor Jasmine Koh.
Tumpik made a complaint to the Ministry of Manpower sometime in March 2022 via the migrant domestic worker helpline that her employer had not been paying her wages. She stopped working for Wu on June 7.
The prosecutor did not say why the helper had entered into the arrangement in the first place, what led to the eventual complaint or why she decided to stop working for Wu on that date.
According to the prosecutor, the total salary “safekept” by the employer was S$23,848.08.
Wu paid Tumpik on June 5, but only S$11,750.
The employer subsequently paid off the amount owed after investigations against her commenced.
Seeking a total fine of between S$12,000 and S$14,000, Ms Koh pointed to the duration of the offences as well as the amount owed to the maid over the long period.
Wu’s defence council pleaded for the court’s leniency, saying that she had owed Tumpik the wages as her income was hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He added that she initially wanted to let go of the maid, but did not want to leave the migrant worker in “double jeopardy” of not being employed and having to bear the costs of staying in Singapore.
He added that Wu has also made restitution to Tumpik since then.
For each count of not paying the helper's salary no later than seven days after it was due, Wu could have been jailed for up to a year, fined up to S$10,000, or both.
