Maids Seen Doing Work, Balanced on Scaffolding - Cheow Sue-Ann

Introduction

The article chosen for this individual assignment is ‘Maids seen doing work, balanced on scaffolding.’ By Cheow Sue-Ann. The article highlights the issue of human rights, labor standards and its enforcement in the work place.

In the given article, the author talks about the safety and hazard risks in the workplace mainly due to negligence. The article mentions how the employers who hired the maids have little or no regard for their safety or working conditions. It calls for their protection and the needs for regulations to be strictly enforced. In the course of this writing, the topic in hand will be analyzed using the theoretical concepts of ‘System Thinking’ and ‘Global Commerce’.
        

System Thinking

According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary (n.d.), a system is nothing but a regularly interacting collection of things that form a unified group. System thinking is derived from ‘Systems Theory’. It implies the capacity to see the comprehensive view and also the ability to see the interrelationships between what may, at start appear to be totally irrelevant (Senge, 1990). System thinking is a more incorporating way to deal with problem solving. Systems are denoted to be a supporting and balancing process (Senge, 1994). There are three major components of System Thinking which are: The Four Levels of Thinking Model, Senge’s Systems Thinking Principles, as well as Links and Loops. For this writing the first two shall be applied to draw conclusions.

In relation to the article, initially it can be analyzed by applying the four levels of thinking pyramid which are events, patterns, systemic models and mental models.

As outlined by the Senge (1990), events are noticeable activities and practices which can be directly perceived in day to day lives. In the given article, the event is quite straight forward. The event which took place in Singapore is that three foreign maids were found to be doing scaffolding work for their employer with little or no protection and in difficult working conditions.

Patterns arise when similar activities and practices are repeated over time (Gibbons, 2018). The articles also mention how a maid in her 20s fell seven storeys down when cleaning windows at a condominium in Tampines (Ann, 2017). Also, a press release by the Ministry of Manpower in 2012 shows the statistics of Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) work related injuries.  During the period 2010 to June 2012, there have been a total of 21 cases out of which 5 were due to cleaning windows in an unsafe manner. Thereby it can be said with evidence that the particular event in the article isn’t singled out but rather an outcome of a pattern.

Systemic models show the connection between the patterns or as to what cause the patterns. This can be boiled down to the lack of legislation / regulation or the lack of enforcement. It is clear from the article the regulations are in place as it talks about the fine of $10,000 or a jail punishment for up to 1 year for employers who assign work to their domestic workers without safety measures (Ann, 2017). However, it is also important how strictly the laws are enforced. In most cases the employer ends up having more power in comparison to the maids, the maids do not know whom to turn to if any issues. The Manpower Ministry has also rejected initiatives to punish employers if a domestic worker gets hurt from falling. The argument made is that even though their safety is the responsibility of the employer such laws would not consider exceptional conditions, for example, suicides (Morris, 2001).