Malaysian govt denies agreeing to ‘one-maid-one-chore’ policy | Asian Correspondent

Malaysian govt denies agreeing to ‘one-maid-one-chore’ policy | Asian Correspondent
 Yong Yen Nie, Mar 17, 2012

The Malaysian government has denied that it had agreed to a minimum monthly wage of RM700 and ‘one-maid-one-chore’ agreement with Indonesia.

According to the Malaysian Insider, Malaysian Human Resources Minister Dr S. Subramaniam said the claims made by Jakarta was not in line with the understanding between the two nations.

“We agreed on the training and if some of them want to specialise, they can do so. Those (employers) who want them for general work can get general maids. I urge the different Indonesian departments not to simply issue statements on their own,” Subramaniam was quoted as saying here.

After lifting a two-year moratorium due to rampant cases of maid abuse in December last year, Indonesia has agreed to send maids to Malaysia. Indonesia said it would eventually send between 4,000 and 5,000 skilled maids a month to Malaysia.

However, Malaysian Maid Empoyers’ Association president Engku Ahmad Fauzi Engku Muhsein told The Star the decision had only added to the frustration of families that had waited so long to resolve their need for domestic help.

Several days ago, Indonesia’s Labour Placement Development director-general Dr Reyna Usman said the first batch of Indonesian maids that would be placed in Malaysia would be trained in four household chores but they will only be employed to do only one task for their employers.

“If a maid is employed as a cook, she will only be tasked with chores related to cooking and will not be doing any other duties, such as baby-sitting or washing clothes,” she was quoted as saying here.

The first batch of 106 maids are undergoing the four skill training courses currently.
Dr Reyna said the maids to be employed would only do one of the four main household tasks such as cooking, babysitting, taking care of the elderly or housekeeping.

“If all this while, maids were not professional as they had to do all sort of duties, causing their employers to get angry, now their skills will be tailored to their jobs,” she said.

She also claimed that Malaysia and Indonesia have also agreed on minimum wage for maids, whereby maids would be paid at least RM700 (US$233) monthly by their bosses. Last year, Malaysia rejected Indonesia’s request to impose a minimum wage of RM800 for maids, which was said to be double of what they were getting paid in the past.

The ‘one-maid-one-chore’ agreement as claimed by Indonesia came under fire by foreign maid associations and Malaysian dailies, with most saying they would rather hire domestic helpers elsewhere that are able to do more than one chore.