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Latest Update: Wednesday24/6/2009June, 2009, 11:52 PM Doha Time Maid abuse may spark labour crisis Siti, an Indonesian mother of two, busies herself with the daily chores of washing, cleaning and cooking for her Malaysian employer as she thinks of her family back home. The 29-year-old native of Indonesia's Surabaya district has been working in Malaysia for almost two years, during which she has never been allowed to leave her employer's home by herself, let alone have a day off. Siti, who has not heard from her family since coming to Malaysia, has also never seen her Malaysian bank account which supposedly holds her salary, and does not know where her employer keeps her travel documents. But she still considers herself one of the luckier maids. "I am lucky, at least my employer does not beat me, and I am given food to eat," said Siti. "I just hope they will give me all my money and send me home once my contract has expired. I miss my family," she said. Despite working conditions that could hardly be described as "lucky," Siti's situation is so common in Malaysia it hardly raises an eyebrow among locals. While the fortunes of foreign domestic workers vary with each different employer, some recent cases of maid abuse have reignited a controversial debate on the lack of laws protecting those migrant workers. Last week, a Malaysian woman appealed an 18-year jail sentence handed down last year after being convicted of physically abusing her teenaged Indonesian maid by beating her, burning her with a hot iron and scalding her on several occasions. More recently, an Indonesian maid pried open the door of her employer's home to seek help after claiming she had been physically abused and not given her salary for the past three years. Those are just some of the thousands of cases of maid abuse each year in Malaysia, with at least 1,200 maids running away from their employers' homes every month. Rights and labour groups said the rise in abuse cases showed an urgent need for the government to amend labour laws. Currently, domestic workers are the only group of employees who are excluded from benefits accorded to workers under the country's employment act, said A Balasubramaniam, vice president of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress. "They don't get set working hours, termination benefits, sick leave, rest days, public holidays, maternity leave, overtime and every other benefit a normal employee is entitled to," he said. "They are the most unprotected and vulnerable workers." Following recent high-profile abuse cases, Indonesian ministers and top officials scheduled talks with their Malaysian counterparts regarding the continued supply of domestic workers. Indonesian officials said the country may consider temporarily halting its supply of maids to Malaysia to protest what appeared to be a lack of government commitment to protect them. Almost 85% of the country's 350,000 maids are from Indonesia, followed by the Philippines and other South-East Asian countries. Indonesians also make up the bulk of tens of thousands of illegal maids who enter the country each year. In March 2003, Jakarta temporarily suspended permits for those wanting to work as maids overseas, citing the need to train its workers better as the official reason. However, Indonesian officers said the move came after local legislators complained of increasing abuse faced by the workers. DPA [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
