The emerging trend of readers’ letters to Singapore newspapers complaining about the conduct of off-duty domestic workers continues.
The latest such letter complains of “upsetting” weekend scenes involving foreign domestic workers “flirting” with elderly men at a coffee shop in Kallang, Singapore.
A 70-year-old male reader of Shin Min Daily News took note of what he deemed inappropriate behavior shown by some maids in the company of men at the coffee shop of a HDB block on Upper Boon Keng Road over the past two months. According to the letter, money allegedly changed hands in the form of tips given by the male drinkers to the domestic workers.
Reporters visited the coffee shop last Sunday. They found five foreign women wearing heavy make-up, plunging necklines and mini-skirts, sitting with senior male drinkers, entertaining them and allowing the men to stroke them affectionately.
Street vendors nearby told the reporters that, based on conversations with the women when they patronized the vendors’ stalls, they understood them to be foreign domestic workers.
Some residents are reportedly upset, claiming that the intimate scenes were morally degrading and inappropriate, especially in a residential area where children were around during weekends.
An employment agent added that if the foreign women are indeed domestic workers, they could be violating their conditions of stay by working as “bar girls” during rest days.
Related: Over 200 migrants and maids blamed for nuisance in Kallang