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Topic:
Championing For a Fair Deal For Live-In Domestic Workers in Singapore: Issues And Obstacles
Abstract:
This talk examines the issues and obstacles in fighting for the rights of migrant domestic workers in Singapore. It highlights and explains Singapore’s dependency on live-in migrant domestic workers, normative employment conditions and questions the sustainability of the current model of recruitment and employment of these workers. The key issues and views that will be shared in the talk are drawn from the speaker’s decade long experience in volunteering in various capacities for TWC2, an NGO concerned with the welfare and well-being of migrant workers in Singapore, as well as her past publications and continuing research and interest on issues concerning the employment of live-in migrant domestic workers and their relationships with employers and the Singaporean society. The speaker concludes that a fair deal for migrant domestic workers can only be achieved if there is greater consciousness and intolerance of the immorality of the current model of recruitment and norms of employment and a conscious shift in society’s mindset to recognize domestic service as equal to other forms of paid work.
Dr Noorashikin Abdul Rahman has been a board member of TWC2 since it was first registered as a society in 2004. At TWC2 she has run projects in diverse areas such as direct services, capacity building, research and advocacy. Currently, she specialises on research and advocacy. Two research reports that Noor completed for TWC2 were Justice Delayed, Justice Denied: the experiences of migrant workers in Singapore (2010) and Made to Work: Attitudes towards granting regular days off to migrant domestic workers (2011). Dr Noor has a doctorate in Social Sciences and has published several book chapters on migration and migrant domestic workers in Singapore.
