‘Employer Mopped Pinay HSW’s Face’
By Philip C. Tubeza and Cheryl M. Arcibal
January 29, 2016
DID she steal the $500 or was she framed up?
A Filipino household service worker was charged with theft after her employer in Aberdeen said a missing $500 was found in her bag.
Nora A. vehemently denied the charge at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts while her lawyer alleged that her employer mistreated the Filipino domestic worker on October 15 and framed her up so that they would not pay her one month salary in lieu of notice of termination.
“You yourself went to the bathroom and picked up a mop..Did you rub it on the defendant’s face? Didn’t she try to stop you with her hands?” defense lawyer Phillip Ross asked Nora’s former employer during his cross examination on January 19.
He denied the allegations but Ross said that the employer took the beam of the dehumidifier and poured the water inside it over the defendant’s head during their confrontation on October 15.
Ross said that while Nora dried her hair inside the bathroom, the male employer went inside her room while the female employer stood at the door.
They then called the police, who found the missing $500 in Nora’s wallet inside a bag in her room.
“I suggest you framed up the defendant and put the money in the wallet…You lied to save one month’s salary because you wanted to terminate her,” Ross said.
He added that Nora’s former employers were “strict,” requiring her to take a shower whenever she returned home from her day-off. The male employer also allegedly scolded Nora for not properly squeezing water out of a towel she was cleaning.
Ross said the employer warned her that, if she did that again, she would have to “drink the water” or get $100 deducted from her salary.
The former employer denied Ross’ allegations, saying that they actually wanted Nora to stay because his wife was then pregnant and had signs of miscarriage.
“I needed her. I didn’t want her to leave,” he said, adding that he earned $100,000 a month as a businessman.
The witness said he and his wife started employing Nora on September 15 but noticed that she was “weird” after one week.
He said there was a phone in their flat and only he, his wife, and airline company where she works knew its number.
However, they received a call on that phone and the caller was looking for Nora, who allegedly had taken out a loan.
The defendant also allegedly let in a “stranger” into the flat although, after Ross’ questioning, it turned out that the stranger was actually a repairman who had come to repair their washing machine.
The employer said they withdrew $5,000 on October 11 to pay Nora’s salary. He jotted down the serial numbers of the bank notes because his sister-in-law was charged by her former domestic worker for not paying her salary.
On October 15, he discovered that $500 was missing. When Nora came back a little past 9 p.m., he asked her if she saw the bank note but she said she did not and showed her wallet to him.
He then called the police while Nora allegedly became angry and threw out her belongings from her room into the corridor.
Ross said it was the employer who threw out her belongings and kicked them towards the sala. Nora’s trial resumes on February 3.