In August last year, a young Malaysian woman who was only 20 years old came to Singapore to work so as to reduce the burden on her family. She worked as a therapist in a local vision treatment service company.
However, her mother pointed out that during her time at work, her daughter was humiliated by the boss with the words “stupid, mentally handicapped, brain-disabled” many times, and was accused of sleeping during working hours.
The boss also made her daughter to do non-partial duties, such as handing out flyers, planning travel itineraries, etc., and deducting her weekend vacation after she takes sick leave.
She said that the final fuse was when her daughter took a leave of absence and returned to Malaysia twice. The first time was when her daughter applied for a vacation to attend a funeral. Although she had obtained the approval of the boss’s wife, she was repeatedly bombed by phone calls from the boss during the funeral, asking her to return to work.
The other time was when she was going to attend a wedding and applied for a 6-day holiday, but it was finally reduced to 4 days. The daughter was helpless and she had to accept the arrangement, but was notified of her termination during the holiday. She was even told to pay $1,000 as she failed to fulfill her contract.
The girl came to Singapore to work in order to reduce the burden on the family and also to subsidize her younger brother’s educational expenses, but she owed money instead. After she returned to Malaysia, she hanged herself on December 19 last year while her family was away.
The boss of the vision treatment company stated that the deceased was fired because of poor performance and that he was slandered by competitors, and he has reported to the police for his online harassment.
In addition, the boss also denied the allegations of the deceased’s mother, saying that he did not insult the deceased. The Ministry of Manpower is investigating the matter.