(1095) Long Service Reward

I have followed a friend's long term maid for many years. She is a single Filipina and she sends all her wages home to her parents who used her hard-earned money to bring up a bunch of grandchildren whose parents (siblings of the maid) escaped from their responsibilities.

My friend is a woman of independent means. I know she is quietly planning to keep aside a lump sum that is not part of the maid's legal wage which is stated in the contractual document. Should the maid leave after proper notice and she is pleasant, she will then get the secret gratuity.

Now we will look at an Indonesian maid who stole one golden item every seven weeks or so from her mistress who has dementia. Interestingly this kind of quiet theft went on for three years or so until the death of the mistress. It was discovered by the children of the deceased after the maid returned to her home country. It is also a long serving maid of eighteen years. All these jewels were pawned at the nearby pawn shops. Interestingly, most of them were recovered with the threat of law suits aimed at the small pawn shops - at least the items which have not been resold.

One day I was relating both the above to my mum. What my mum said was eye-opening to me. I have never thought about the employers' moral responsibilities towards contractual workers. According to my mum, it is an unwritten rule that in Asia, long serving maids would be given suitably calculated sums when they retired. Suppose the single maid decides to stay on (assuming legally such a maid could stay on), such a faithful maid would be treated as a family member, any illness, upkeep and all funeral expense would be borne by the employer's children as a matter of course.

My mum said that while she does not condone thefts, she said that the second employer's children probably (being Western educated) do not know of their moral responsibilities and only follow the letter of the law. From an old fashion view, the maid was merely extracting her unwritten due with her wit. Perhaps I am lucky that for most of my adult life, I did not have any maid for domestic service. I did have one helper when I was sick for one year or so. Imagine if I similarly have had a maid for twenty years or so, how was I going to find the large amount to pay out a long service reward?