Amos Atlantis

Trips to the bathroom turned into a nightmare for a STOMPer’s wife, who claims that a male staff from a massage store started harassing her a week ago, calling out to her and even tugging at her hair.

The first incident happened when the man offered the woman a massage for free if she went to his house.

Although she started to avoid him from then on, he still managed to traumatise her by mimicking the way she walked and even tugged at her hair from behind.

The infuriated STOMPer says in an email:

“Around a week ago, my wife was verbally harassed in a sexual manner by a staff working in a 10-dollar massage shop at Jurong Point, where she works.

“The male staff was outside the shop handing out pamphlets and when my wife walked past, he said: ‘Free massage!’.

“Because she did not see any promotions going on, she asked: ‘Huh? Free massage?’

“The staff told her sheepishly: ‘At my house’. She ignored him and walked away.

“Ever since that occasion, she would take a different route to get to the restroom whenever she saw that male staff standing outside the shop.

“Today (February 2), when she walked past the shop in the afternoon, the guy saw her and started to mock her by imitating the way she walked.

“Again at 8pm, she was walking back from the restroom when the male staff tugged at her hair from behind! She got a rude shock and scolded him but he just walked back to the shop without saying anything.

“When I arrived at 8:40pm, the supervisor informed me about what happened and I went over to confront the man immediately.

“He got a shock when I questioned him about what happened and he admitted to the things he did.

“He denied touching my wife at first but when I questioned him loudly he said: ‘Yes, but I just brushed her hair’.

"The store manager, Mr. A, stepped in and asked me what happened and watched me question his staff.

“He told me he would not side with his staff and asked me how I wanted to resolve it.

“He called the police and they came in approximately 10 minutes.

“After taking our statements, they advised me to file a magistrate’s complaint at the subordinate court. They couldn’t apprehend the male staff as he only admitted to touching her hair and not her body.

“After the police left, I approached Mr. A and asked him what is his take on this (he told the police he will give me an answer to this issue) and what are his actions?

“He said he would terminate his staff immediately.

“I said terminating a staff is as easy as ABC, what are the compensation or responsibilities he should bear?

“The male staff committed three offences:

“1: Soliciting female customers with ill intentions (verbal harassment)

2: Imitating her in the form of mockery (mental harassment)

3: Tug her hair (physical harassment)

“After all this, he still HAD NOT MENTIONED A WORD OF SORRY TO MY WIFE!

“Since all this happened when the store was under his care, shouldn’t he offer some compensation?

“He replied that he had no control over his staff. He taught them what to say and how to behave but if they go astray, it’s their own private problem and I should deal with them personally.

“So can I say that he’s trying to shift responsibilities just by firing his staff on the spot, reliving him of all consequences caused by what his staff did?

“Future patrons of this massage shop better think twice about such irresponsible mentality of the people-in-charge.

“They have six outlets in SG, Novena; Dhoby Ghaut; AMK; Changi T2; Tanjong Pagar and of course,  Jurong Pt.

“The male staff is around 40 to 50-year-old Malaysian who holds Singapore PR.

“Do we need such ‘foreign talent’ around? To prey on would be victims, tormenting them mentally, verbally and physically!

“Such people have to be stopped before things go out of hand. I leave all readers to judge for themselves!"