A woman was unhappy with her maid and resorted to physical punishments and even going as far as cutting the maid’s salary.
35-year-old Zhao Lin a Singapore permanent resident pleaded guilty in court for hitting her maid on multiple occasions.
Background:
Zhao who is working as a nurse would often hit the maid in front of her 4-year-old son, Today News reported that her son question her mother about the reason for hitting her maid.
Zhao pleaded guilty in court yesterday (Apr 4) after she attacked her 29-year-old Myanmarese maid Ma Ei, the following is a list of things she did to the maid:
- Slapped the maid 10 times on her face for not keeping away her son’s toy in a way that would satisfy her. The slaps were so loud that the home’s CCTV could record the sound of the slap
- Destroying the maid’s mobile phone
- Slapped as the maid did not vacuum “properly”
- Hit her body
- Hurling insults and shouting at the maid
- Cut her monthly salary from $500 to $200 and sometimes to even $100 whenever she make’s mistakes or failed to provide a satisfactory service or damaging any household items and even let the maid sign papers stating that she has received her full $500 salary.
How the case came to light
After getting hit by Zhao, the maid contacted the Police. When the Police wanted CCTV recordings Zhao refused. Zhao’s husband arrives home moments later to provide the data to the CCTV.
The maid was eventually seen by a doctor and several bruises and cuts were found on her body.
Zhao will be back in court on May 9.
If she is found guilty of voluntarily causing hurt she can be jailed up to two years and/or fine SGD$5,000.
For mischief (destroying maid’s phone) she can face up to 1 year in jail.