Friday, 04 September 2009
Indonesian maids in Malaysia to have weekly day off
AFP - Thursday, September 3·
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - – Indonesian maids working in Malaysia will be given one day off a week and be allowed to hold onto their passports, the home ministry said Thursday, in a new deal triggered by a string of abuse case.
Indonesia imposed a ban on sending maids to work here in June, after a 43-year-old Malaysian woman was charged with causing grievous bodily harm by beating her Indonesian maid and scalding her with boiling water.
Malaysia's Home Ministry said in a statement that the new terms were agreed by senior Malaysian and Indonesian officials who met in August."The meeting has agreed that Indonesian maids will be allowed to keep their passport when they are working in this country," it said.
Currently, employers typically hold onto maids' passports, to prevent them running away or to exercise control over them."The Indonesian maids also will be given one day off a week," it added.The ministry said the committee thrashing out the new working conditions will hold a fourth meeting in Jakarta this Saturday, which will tackle the hotly debated topic of maids' wages.
The issue of wages has remained unresolved despite talks that have been held intermittently since 2007.Malaysia -- one of Asia's largest importers of labour -- depends heavily on domestic workers, mainly from Indonesia, but has no laws governing their working conditions.
The government in May announced plans for new laws to protect domestic workers from sexual harassment, non-payment of wages and poor working conditions. Currently Indonesian maids typically work seven days a week for as little as 400 ringgit (113 dollars).
Indonesian Maids to have weekly day off
Posted by WARISAN SRIKANDI SERVICES & CONSULTANCY on Sunday, September 6, 2009Thursday, 18 June 2009
Employers Must Surrender Passport If Requested By MaidsBy:
PUTRAJAYA, June 17 (Bernama) -- Employers holding on to the passport of their foreign maids must surrender the travel document if requested by the maids.Failure to surrender the passport on the request will result in a RM10,000 fine under amendments to the Employment Act 1955.
Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, in announcing this here today, however, said foreign maids could only request for their passport, which was kept for security and other legitimate reasons, to be used for official use like the renewal of their visa."If the maid wants to leave and requests for the passport, it should be handed to her.
The amendments also put the onus on the employer to ensure that the visa of the domestic helper is renewed on time."If the visa is not renewed, then the employer is also liable to a fine," he told a press conference after meeting the Indian Human Resource Development Minister, Kapil Sibal, at a leading hotel here.Tuesday, Dr Subramaniam announced that under the amendments to the Employment Act, all foreign maids would be entitled to one day leave a week."We discussed with a lot of people before making this change. It is not something new as it is already in our Employment Act.
Only maids, except those from the Philippines, have been exempted from this ruling."The off day may not necessarily be a Sunday or a public holiday. It can be mutually agreed upon by the maid and the employer. This move was requested not only by the government but also workers' representatives and non-governmental organisations," he said.Dr Subramaniam said employers, with the mutual consent of their maids, could also compensate them if they were not given leave.The ministry, he said, would provide a booklet to each foreign maid entering the country, containing all important information including their rights and legal recourse in case of any problem in their employment."If there is a breach of contract by the employer, then the maid with the aid of the booklet will be able to lodge a report with the relevant authority," he said.
Meanwhile, he said the government had yet to decide whether to allow maids from China to work in Malaysia."Initially, when we looked at this, it received opposition from several quarters of the Chinese community, but now we don't know if the situation has changed," he added.
-- BERNAMA
Published: Saturday September 5, 2009 MYT 6:11:00 PM
By SARBAN SINGH
SEREMBAN: Human Resources Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam has confirmed that Indonesia is demanding a RM800 minimum salary for its domestic maids, saying that it is under “pressure” to do so from the republic’s local media.
Dr Subramaniam said the Indonesian government had little choice but to do so following reports by its media of so-called rampant abuse of maids by Malaysian employers.
He said the RM800 wage demand was discussed during a meeting between ministry officials and their Indonesian counterparts in Putrajaya two weeks ago.
“We told them that this is not fair as 99.9% of the 280,000 Indonesian maids here are treated well.
“Only 0.1% may be ill-treated or not have their salaries paid but they (the Indonesian government) are being pressured by their media,” he said here Saturday.
Indonesian maids in the country are now being paid an average of between RM450 and RM600 monthly.
Asked if he thought the amount was high, Subramaniam said the ministry would wait for the outcome of the next meeting in Jakarta.
“I do not want to pre-empt it. I have told my officers what they should do. Let us wait and see if this is agreed to by our Indonesian counterparts,” he said.
Dr Subramaniam was responding to reports quoting Indonesian ambassador to Malaysia Da’i Bachtiar as saying that Jakarta would be making the higher wage demand in its negotiations.
Asked if his ministry had contingency plans in case Jakarta refused to budge, Dr Subramaniam said Malaysian employers could source their domestic maids from other countries.
“We should also stop relying on foreign maids. It is high time we become self-reliant.
“We allow employers to bring in maids from Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. “We have also thought about China but there have been some debate here if this should be allowed,” he said.
Dr Subramaniam said it was also a known fact that when the government of a source country had asked for exorbitant wages for their maids, the demand from Malaysians would fall.
“We used to have more than 10,000 maids from the Philippines previously. The number has since fallen to 8,000. Malaysians have a choice where they wish to get their maids from,” he added.
