High cost of hiring Indonesian maids causing M'sian employers to think twice

PETALING JAYA: The high cost in hiring a full-time Indonesian maid might compel people to think twice when hiring a maid said two associations involved in the recruitment of foreign maids for the Malaysian market.
Malaysian Maid Employers Association (Mama) president Engku Fauzi Engku Muhsein told theSun that the numbers of Indonesian maids coming into the country is not solely dependent on that country's government allowing its citizen to work overseas.
Instead, he said that all this time the numbers of Indonesian maids coming to Malaysia depended on several factors.
Among these include the cost of hiring a maid and the prospective employer's willingness to pay, the quality and health of prospective maid as well as the comparative advantage of working in other host countries.
"Now that Indonesia no longer restrict it's citizens from working in any country, the numbers of them coming into Malaysia to work as maids might actually drop slightly as Malaysian employers would now have to compete with more host countries that require their service.
"Furthermore, attractive wages offered elsewhere and the falling ringgit might also be a factor that drive Indonesian maids away," Engku Fauzi said when contacted recently.
Citing the high cost in hiring a full-time maid, Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) Jeffrey Foo said that many Malaysians have switched to employing temporary helpers to help with household chores.
"The cost of hiring has been up many times, it used to be around RM8,000 to hire a maid but now it has increased to RM15,000 and the hike is mainly due to the suppliers increasing the price as a result of demand for Indonesian maids.
"This eventually resulted in Malaysian employers switching to temporary helpers as it is much cheaper and cost effective," Foo said.
On Mar 20, a local Chinese daily reported that in an about-turn on its earlier stand, Indonesia announced that it will continue to allow its citizens to work as domestic helpers overseas.
Confirming that Indonesia will not ban its maids from working overseas, the Indonesian Manpower Ministry however said it is negotiating with host countries for better treatment of the maids.
The ministry's director for the protection and placement of Indonesian migrant workers abroad, Soes Hindharno, said: "We don't want to stop them (maids) from going abroad, but we want to better protect them."
This, he said, included preventing them from being exploited such as being forced to perform duties outside their job scope.
Jakarta had announced earlier that to protect its women, it would stop its domestic helpers from working overseas this year, resulting in many impoverished Indonesian maids resorting to the use of illegal means to work overseas.
Nevertheless, Indonesia maintains the ban on its maids from working in Middle Eastern countries.
The ban was imposed in 2015 to protect the pride and dignity of these workers following a series of cases of legal and human rights violations.