http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=94752&d=9&m=4&y=2007&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom
Monday, 9, April, 2007 (21, Rabi` al-Awwal, 1428)
Recruitment of Foreign Maids Getting Tougher
K.S. Ramkumar, Arab News
JEDDAH, 9 April 2007 - Foreign and local recruitment agents
are eagerly awaiting the Kingdom's new regulations governing the contract and
employment of housemaids. It is thought that the hiring procedure will become
"difficult and costlier."
This follows the Philippine government's move to increase the
monthly salary of its housemaids to stand between SR750 and SR1,500, coupled
with several strict recruitment conditions.
Indonesia, which supplies 60 percent of the 20,000 maids that
arrive in the Kingdom every month on employment visas, is also likely to press
for an additional allowance for insurance and a salary hike.
Hamsataki, a Jakarta-based federation of Indonesian workers'
offices, is demanding for an increase in recruitment costs for domestic workers
from the current SR6,000 to SR7,100. The increase will result in an increase in
Indonesia's revenue from labor export and will see the workers receive better
treatment from overseas employers.
In fact, the Indonesian demand comes in the wake of new
measures taken by the Philippines, which ranks second in terms of employment of
housemaids in the Kingdom.
Local agents and employers say they are concerned about the
latest moves by Indonesia and the Philippines, as that would increase the cost
involved in hiring housemaids and also cast an additional financial burden due
to salary hikes.
Hamsataki Chairman Yunus M. Yamani said the new proposal was
in the interest of Indonesian maids.
"With this additional sum, we will end up spending a total of
SR7,100 toward hiring an Indonesian housemaid," Fahad Sharif, a local agent
said on behalf of Saudi employers. "This will cast more financial burden on
employers. Instead, the cost of hiring domestic workers should be brought
down," he said, adding that Hamsataki might have come up with the proposal
following the Philippine move to increase the monthly salary of its maids.
The Philippine move is coupled with an increase in the number
of conditions recruiters must meet for the country to approve foreign
contracts, said Saad Al-Baddah, chairman of the national committee for
recruitment at the Riyadh-based Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and
Industry.
He told local media that the committee brought the Philippine
move to the notice of local authorities so that employers could avoid the
additional burden and also tackle the Philippines' stringent measures in
recruiting maids.
Dharmakirty Syailendra Putra, consul at the Indonesian
Consulate General, told Arab News that the salaries of his country's domestic
workers have remained the same so far. The minimum specified is SR600 for
housemaids and SR800 for male domestic workers.
"We have as yet no official information about the insurance
proposal," he said, adding that the authorities in Jakarta were considering new
proposals to seek an increase in salaries and allowances of domestic workers.
Employers here incur fees of SR3,000 to SR5,000 in the process of recruiting
Indonesian domestic workers, he added.
Work on the first-ever regulation governing the relationship
between housemaids and their employers and defining obligations and rights of
either party is nearing completion, Qusai Al-Felali, director of the Labor
Office, said in a report. "The present labor law does not cover many aspects
relating to domestic workers, especially housemaids."
According to estimates, there are two million domestic
helpers in the Kingdom.
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