Fostering Harmonious Employment Relationships Through Art
~CDE continuously work on building better relationships between employers and their foreign domestic workers~
This afternoon, the Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) organised a day of art activities for about 30 families together with their foreign domestic workers (FDWs) and 60 other FDWs and guests. This is part of CDE’s continuous efforts to encourage employers and FDWs to have open communication, mutual respect and better understanding and appreciation of one another beyond an employer/employee relationship. Since 2016, CDE has been advocating for employers and FDWs to foster harmonious relationships so that FDWs can have a home away from home and employers have good help for their homes.
To build a harmonious relationship, there needs to be a strong foundation. Ms Low Yen Ling, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Manpower and the Guest of Honour at the event announced some new measures to help in better job matching between employers and FDWs to reduce disputes.
In response Mr Yeo Guat Kwang, Chairman of CDE shared, “CDE welcomes the new measures, which require EAs to exercise greater responsibility and accountability during the matching process and follow up in instances where the employment relationship doesn’t work out. While employers can have access to information of the FDW’s job history, we hope that EAs can further improve the process by also sharing basic employers’ information (e.g household size, need to take care of children and or elderly) with FDWs so that they can also decide if they can fit well into the job. In our effort to foster harmonious working relationship, CDE will be collaborating with Lutheran Community Care Services (LCCS) to provide dispute resolution services for employers, FDWs and EAs so that they can avoid turning to legal help as means to resolve their conflicts. The sessions are free and will be conducted by trained and certified professionals.”
Using Art and Games as a Medium of Communication
With the aim of giving employers and FDWs a platform to interact and connect, this afternoon’s event used art to promote empathy and foster interactions between families and their FDWs in a non-conventional setting.
Employers and FDWs co-created 30 canvas art paintings, and almost 100 foam tiles were decorated with drawings messages by employers and their children to appreciate their FDWs. Come December, these art pieces will be showcased during CDE’s International Migrants Day (IMD) celebration. There were also fringe activities to help foster better relations, which saw employers together with their children and FDWs decorating cupcakes.
Some employers participated in an “Empathy Challenge” card game, with the aim of letting employers understand the FDWs at work and the challenges they face. The game mirrored real-life situations that FDWs encounter during their employment in Singapore, and required employers playing the game to adopt an FDW avatar to better understand the perspective of FDWs when faced with different situations.
At the same event, Mr Yeo also announced that CDE will be launching a “Best Employment Relations Award”, to recognise the efforts of exemplary employment agencies, employers and FDWs in maintaining good employment relations. The details of the award criteria will be shared in December during the IMD celebration event.
