‘Don’t eat garlic and work as a helper at home’
Print Edition
DOMESTIC helpers should not drink alcohol or eat food like garlic and leeks, which will cause bad breath and body odor, before work, according to Shanghai’s first practical guide for ayi, which was released at the weekend.
The guide has been issued to regulate the local domestic service industry, often stereotyped as a loosely managed market, served by a motley crew of workers.
Ayi are required by the guide to keep themselves clean at their employers’ homes, and not to doll up by wearing jewelry, using strong perfume or even painting their nails.
The guide also emphasizes the importance of how to treat others with respect and courtesy. For example, when guests come, ayi should serve tea with two hands and not touch the rims of cups, and when the guests leave, ayi should see them out.
Specifications about how to clean kitchens, toilets and living rooms are included, and tools are classified, based on their functions. A cotton duster is used to clean furniture, non-woven fabric is used to wipe glass and microfiber cloth is used to scrub kitchenware.
Due to the loosening of family planning policies and an increasingly aging population, there is a steep rise in the demand for yue sao, or maternity matrons, as well as carers for the elderly. And their duties and how to carry them out are detailed in the guide.
For example, yue sao should observe how a baby defecates to monitor their health conditions. Also, they have to teach babies how to play with toys and train them to do some exercises, both indoors and outdoors, to help them to learn to speak and become more familiar with the world.
When taking care of the elderly, carers are not simply required to do housekeeping. They also should spare extra time for the elderly, such as chatting with them or accompanying them to hospital, the guide says.
They also need to alert their employers when to take medicine and when to see the doctor, and advise on health tips. Routine checking of electricity, gas and water equipment are also required by the guide.
Zhou Juemin, deputy director of Shanghai Home Service Industry Association, said criteria and standards were necessary.
Domestic service companies might be marked according to industrial standards in future, she added, and she warned that authorities might issue a guide on what prices could be charged according to gradings received.
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