Working long hours, and sometimes without pay, some foreign maids are nothing more than modern-day slaves

by MARC LOURDES

KUALA LUMPUR: Their jobs are supposed to include sweeping floors and cooking -- not waiting tables at restaurants, cutting hair at salons or harvesting produce at vegetable patches.Yet, that's exactly what many maids are made to do. Glorene Dass says some employers outsource their maids to family members. Many employers hire foreign women as domestic maids, but make them work in places of business. Maids, unaware of their rights or sometimes just afraid to stand up for themselves, comply and become a source of cheap, uncomplaining labour.
"Some employers engage women as domestic helpers but instead make them work in restaurants, hair salons, pasar malam stalls or vegetable and fruit farms."Sometimes, even domestic servants who work in homes are made to do dangerous work like fixing roofs or inappropriate jobs like bathing the family dog when it is against their religion to do so," said Malaysian Trade Unions Congress vice-president A. Balasubramaniam.
"In Hong Kong, Indonesian maids have their own union to help them out but here, there is no union representation at all because they are not considered as 'employees' per se. "We submitted an application to the Registrar of Societies and Home Ministry in March last year to allow them to at least form an association. "The application was rejected in September last year with no reason given."If maids are allowed to form an association, said Balasubrama- niam, they could at least negotiate better deals from employers, push for more protection from the authorities and lobby that the Employment Act be amended to include them. Tenaganita programme officer Glorene Dass recalled a case where several women were brought in as domestic servants but forced to work for more than 18 hours a day in a goldsmith factory.
"They were made to live above the factory and the windows of the factory were boarded up with plywood so that nobody from the outside could see what was going on. "The women even had to dry their laundry indoors and were locked inside when they finished work. "One of the women tried to kill herself twice just to escape the place," she said. Dass said there were also cases where the employer "outsourced" maids to other family members.

"For example, the employer would send her to work in his mother's house, and then to his sister's house. "We have had many documented cases like these."The women are never paid a single sen extra for the additional work they do. Dass said agents, when supplying maids, would tell employers that disobedient ones would be given counselling."This 'counselling' basically consists of threatening, punishing and abusing the domestic workers into toeing the line," she said. "They are threatened with the prospect of being sold into prostitution if they repeat their misdeeds."They are slapped and beaten in front of other women to make sure the rest will be intimidated," she said.Maids are stuck in a Catch-22 situation because the moment they go to the authorities, their employers or agents lodge reports against them.Their work permits are immediately revoked, making them undocumented workers and open to arrest by Immigration officers."The Employment Act gives them the right to redress but the Immigration Act takes it away by making them illegals living here," said Dass.

Checklist Submit Dokumen ke Imigresen

Filipino maids must justify higher wages, says envoy

By PAUL GABRIEL


KUALA LUMPUR: Hiring a Filipino domestic helper has been painful on the pocket with the 100% increase in wages being enforced here - now it’s “payback” time for the Philippines.

Filipino maids are being paid US$400 (RM1,372), up from US$200 (RM686), following the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s decision in October 2006 to standardise the minimum salary of Filipino household workers deployed overseas.

The move drew flak from Malaysian employment agencies who described the increase as too high and unrealistic.

Even Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia Victariano M. Lecaros agreed that the minimum wage set was relatively high for Malaysian employers.

He wanted his country’s domestic workers to do more to justify their high salary.

“US$400 may be cheap in Europe and North America, but that is not the case here in Malaysia. A one size-fits-all solution may not have been the best (in standardising the minimum wage worldwide),” Lecaros said in an interview.

To put right the situation, he urged Filipino domestic helpers here to do more than just simple chores like cooking and cleaning.

“For US$400, they should be able to do much more. Many of our girls are college-educated and can handle tasks like tutoring schoolchildren.

“They should also be good enough to handle specialised tasks like caring for the aged,” he said, calling on Filipino domestic workers to live up to their billing as “super maids”.

The envoy said Philippine maid agencies should also ensure that the domestic workers were well trained to handle varied tasks before despatching them here.

Employment agencies here have to sign and stamp contracts with the Philippine Embassy for every Filipino domestic worker brought in.

The contracts also state that the Filipino maid is entitled to a rest day every Sunday.

An employer, who declined to be named, said she only paid a RM400 salary for the Filipino maid she hired about 20 years ago, adding that the present rate was “not right.”

“I wouldn’t say that in terms of ability, they are that much better than Indonesian maids. The only advantage is that they speak English,” she said.

She said although she could afford to hire a Filipino maid at the present rate, she preferred to stick with her Indonesian domestic helper “who did the same chores for a much lower salary.”

Indonesian maids here are paid RM400, one-third the salary of their Filipino counterparts.

There are about 30,000 Filipinos living and working the peninsula, with an estimated 20,000 of them working as domestic helpers

Employers can appeal fine - maids run away

Tuesday, 09 September 2008
PORT DICKSON: It is not mandatory for employers whose maids run away to pay a RM250 fine to the Immigration Department.


Its director-general Datuk Mahmood Adam said employers could always appeal if they were asked to do so.

"We will look at this on a case-by-case basis ... we understand that this is sometimes beyond the employers," he said Tuesday when closing the passing out ceremony for 281 Immigration officers.

An average of 1,000 maids run away from their employers every month. There have been reports that some agents worked in cahoots with maids, encouraging them to run away from employers after the replacement period of three months was over.

Mahmood said if employers could give legitimate reasons, they would not be penalised.

He was asked to comment on grouses from employers who not only have to part with between RM5,000 and RM7,000 for their maids but also pay a fine when their domestic helpers run away within weeks.

Admitting that the number of runaway maids was high, Mahmood said prospective employers should get their maids from agencies registered with the Immigration.

"In fact, the names of these agencies are on our website. If you take your maid from the registered agencies, it would be easier for us to monitor their track record and if they had an unusually high number of runaway maids," he said.

Mahmood said if the employers took their maids from unregistered agencies, there was little it could do.

"In a meeting with the Association of Foreign Housemaids Agencies (Papa) a few days ago, this issue of employers being penalised for their runaway maids was also raised.

"But they told us that their members do not have such problems," he said.

It is learnt that only a third of the 350 agencies registered to bring in foreign maids were under Papa.

On a separate matter, Mahmood said the Malaysian passports were of high quality and could not be tampered with.

Responding to claims by Thai authorities that fake Malaysian passports were the most seized at its Suvarnabhumi International Airport last year, Mahmood said:

"It is easy to detect a fake Malaysian passport as we have 35 security features on it. In fact, some of my officers met with our Thai counterparts to discuss this last week," he said.

Mahmood said the Government planned to enhance the security measures which include introducing the radio-frequency identification technology which allowed the movement of the passport to be tracked.

"The passport is popular because Malaysians are multi-racial. If you look at me, I can be from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand or even India," he said in jest.

By SARBAN SINGH-TheStar

Maid’s salary set by gov’t

Ryan Davidson | Sep 13, 04 3:14pm

I am totally in awe of the repetitive comments by Dr G Walter, Phd on the case of me paying my maid a salary of RM400 a month besides all his other comments on emigrating. For your information Walter, my Indonesian Muslim maid here is getting paid almost three times more (based on today’s currency exchange) then the average live-in maid in Indonesia. She decided to come and work in Malaysia for economic gain for her family by sacrificing the years away from them and making money the ‘halal’ way. Ahe gets paid every month on the dot and the money is deposited into her bank account. She also receives bonuses (not part of her contract) during festive seasons, etc. She, together with hundreds of thousands of other Indonesian maids, are working here as they have no means of getting a decent salary - which could improve their living standards - in their home country. If you would like to pick a bone with me on this issue, then you must also pick a bone with the millions of Malaysians who hire foreign workers as maids and construction, factory, restaurant and plantation workers. Please also do not forget the thousands of people involved in the business of supplying these workers and also the government for not setting a higher salary for the foreign workers. I am not going to share with everyone on what my family does for my maid in return for her sacrifice to my family. It is none of anyone’s business. My children call my maid ‘akka’ which is Tamil for elder sister and they are reprimanded by my wife and myself if they misbehave towards her. My maid is treated as a human being in my home unlike many others that you read about in the papers. My children love our maid and vice-versa. For your further information Walter, I do not determine the salary that my maid is to receive. Officially, it’s our government that sets these salary cap for them. If you see this as a socio-economic problem, then perhaps you can start rallying for an increased salary for the hardcore poor Malaysian estate workers who are still suffering a great deal with a pitiful salary while estate owners make better profit margins to pay for their Mercedes Benzes and posh bungalows. Compared to these estate workers, my maid is much better off as she gets a belly full of food everyday, a comfortable bed to lie on, decent clothes, personal amenities and much better working conditions. May I further suggest that you start a campaign amongst to lobby the government to raise the minimum salary to be paid to our very own estate workers before you are irked by people like me who are paying our maids RM400 a month. I guess the plight of the estate workers has only been going on for more then two decades, which in your opinion is not a socio-economic problem. I am curious to know if you have a maid yourself or amongst your family members and how much you are paying the maid besides whatever is stated in her contract.

Ghaibkan Amah

Oleh Ahmad Tajol


KUALA LUMPUR: Menggunakan taktik menabur janji manis berumpankan lelaki warga Indonesia, satu sindiket dikenal pasti bergerak aktif di sekitar Puchong menjalankan kegiatan ‘mengghaibkan’ amah yang juga warga negara jiran itu daripada kediaman majikan mereka.

Sindiket yang dipercayai dianggotai lelaki warga Indonesia itu cenderung mencari amah senegara mereka berbanding pembantu rumah berasal dari negara lain seperti Filipina berikutan faktor bahasa.

Meninjau kawasan perumahan dengan menaiki basikal atau berjalan kaki bagi tujuan mengesan sama ada penduduk di situ mempunyai amah warga asing sebagai sasaran kumpulan itu, mereka sukar dikesan berikutan kebiasaannya bergerak secara berseorangan.

Sebaik mengenal pasti rumah yang mempunyai amah, ahli kumpulan terbabit akan berusaha mendekati pembantu rumah terbabit dan sebaik berjaya ‘dijinakkan’, mangsa yang tertipu akan dilarikan ahli kumpulan sindiket terbabit.

Additional Terms & Conditions

Indon Agency will replace run away maids within 3 months.
However, employer shall be responsible for the following cost:- a) Levy 430 (new maid) b) FOMEMA 190 (new maid) c) Personal Bond 250 (for run away maid)
2) Agency will replace maids for poor performance within 3 months. Employer will bear the following costs:- a) Levy (new maid) b) FOMEMA (new maid) c) One way ticket to her own country (for existing maid)
3) Agency will replace medically unfit maids within 3 months at no costs.

Indon Maid Services

Maid Premium Services intended to good muslim employers only

Current Maid Supply Status

Still active supplying indon maids, but as of now due to shortage, Many requests for housemaid have been turned down
Many requests for housemaid have been turned down due to the shortage supply of biodata

Maid Insurance

Maid insurance although its optional it's good to have one to save guard them

Syarat ambil amah Muslim

Bukan Islam perlu penuhi syarat ambil amah Muslim
Tuesday, 02 September 2008

KUALA LUMPUR: Persatuan Agensi Pembantu Rumah Asing (PAPA) mencadangkan majikan bukan Islam yang ingin menggunakan pembantu rumah asing beragama Islam, memenuhi dulu syarat tertentu yang ditetapkan terlebih dulu sebelum membuat permohonan. Antaranya termasuk menyediakan bilik penginapan khusus pembantu rumah berkenaan dan memudahkan untuk beribadat disusuli dengan pemeriksaan oleh pegawai penguat kuasa Imigresen bagi pengesahan syarat itu dipatuhi. Presiden PAPA, Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan berkata, syarat itu dan mewajibkan majikan menandatangani surat akuan membenarkan menunaikan ibadat wajib seperti sembahyang dan berpuasa sudah lama sedia maklum oleh majikan bukan Islam."Masalahnya, ada majikan terbabit tidak mematuhi peraturan menyebabkan ramai pembantu rumah yang beragama Islam melarikan diri apabila terpaksa melakukan kerja membabitkan perkara haram di sisi Islam seperti memasak daging babi, tidak dibenar sembahyang atau berpuasa."Dalam hal ini, Imigresen sepatutnya membuat pemeriksaan dan pemantauan berkala terhadap majikan bukan Islam yang menggaji pembantu rumah Islam supaya tidak dieksploitasi untuk melakukan kerja bertentangan dengan Syarak," katanya ketika dihubungi di sini, semalam. Minggu lalu, Berita Harian melaporkan kerajaan mengetatkan syarat permohonan bagi pembantu rumah asing supaya mereka tidak dieksploitasi oleh majikan termasuk cadangan hanya membenarkan pembantu rumah beragama Islam bekerja dengan majikan Islam.Timbalan Menteri Dalam Negeri, Datuk Chor Chee Heung, berkata bagi majikan bukan beragama Islam yang mahu menggaji pembantu rumah beragama Islam, mereka wajib menandatangani perakuan pengambilan pekerja berkenaan.Mengikut peraturan, surat perakuan itu juga perlu ditandatangani Pegawai Kerajaan Kumpulan A.Raja Zulkepley mengakui ada majikan bukan Islam mengeksploitasikan pembantu rumah asing Islam dari Indonesia turut dijadikan pekerja di restoran tidak halal."Pihak Jabatan Tenaga Kerja Indonesia pernah membangkitkan kepada saya berkaitan majikan bukan Islam di Malaysia menyalahgunakan pembantu rumah Islam negara itu melakukan kerja bertentangan dengan Syarak. Mereka mahu kerajaan memberi perhatian serius," katanya.Bagaimanapun, katanya Papa tidak mempunyai statistik jumlah pembantu rumah asing Islam yang dieksploitasi majikan bukan Islam untuk melakukan kerja bertentangan tuntutan agama atau yang dinafikan hak mereka.Katanya, langkah terbaik mengatasi masalah itu ialah menetapkan supaya pembantu rumah asing yang beragama Islam hanya dibenarkan bekerja dengan majikan Islam manakala yang bukan Islam pula sebaliknya.Beliau berkata, Papa juga pernah mengemukakan permohonan meminta kerajaan membenarkan pengambilan pembantu rumah warga asing dari China dan Myanmar dibawa masuk untuk dibekalkan kepada majikan bukan Islam di negara ini."Ketika ini negara sumber baru tenaga kerja pembantu rumah asing ialah India, Vietnam, Laos dan Nepal yang diluluskan kerajaan akhir tahun lalu."Jumaat lalu Papa sudah berbincang dengan pihak Kedutaan Nepal untuk membawa masuk pembanru rumah asing dari negara itu dan beberapa persetujuan awal sudah dicapai termasuk kos membiayai kemasukan juga dijangka lebih murah berbanding dari negara sumber lain," katanya.

Biodata as at 4th Sept 2008

telah ditempah


telah ada majikan