Falling Maids & Windows

Apart form all the rain, strolling around the neighbourhood or walking around the many high rise housing estates you might want to take note of the following and something that has never even crossed my mind.

You might get hit by a falling maid or even a window as it turns out as a result of the increase of these cases. The falling maid problem has been in the news from time to time since my arrival here and it is tragic to say the least. Being a maid in Singapore can be life threatening if you end up working for a employer living in one of the high rise estates.

In another incident last week, a maid fell from the 12th floor and thankfully managed to get saved from the 11th floor while cleaning windows. The Minister of Manpower has taken action on this dangerous situation ruling with immediate effect that employers will not allow their domestic workers to clean windows unless two conditions are met.

The employer or an adult representative of the employer must be physically present to supervise the maid and secondly, window grilles must be installed and locked during the cleaning process. To date in 2012 alone, 9 maids have lost their lives cleaning windows.

Personally, I feel this should be banned outright and leave it to a professional cleaning company with the right gear and experience to clean your windows once a year. 

A bigger reason for concern is the amount of fallen window cases. There has been a 75 per cent increase in the first 5 months of this year with some 35 cases of falling windows. Falling windows are from across all estate types including HDB Flats, apartments and condominiums. Mainly due to poor maintenance authorities have issued kits and plan at least 10 roving exhibitions on window safety.

Full article Sharp-increase-in-falling-windows

I was going to call the posting It's Raining Men ??? as I just could not get the song out of my head but in the end decided it would be disrespectful.

You can check out the video on YouTube