Agencies exploiting maids and local employers

Agencies exploiting maids and local employers

V.K. Chin, The Star, Asia News Network, Selangor, Malaysia

It is really amazing that Malaysian and Indonesian middlemen
should be pointing fingers at each other for the delay in the
recruitment of maids for local employers.

It is a typical example of a pot calling the kettle black. In
fact, they are both culpable for the mess because these
recruiters are trying to make some easy money at the expense of
the maids keen to work here and their prospective employers.

Both are fixing a fee for their services and those interested
to come here to work as maids and the Malaysian families keen to
employ them have to pay additional money before a transaction
could be sealed.

Their activities are well known and they are making it more
expensive than necessary for employers to recruit such domestic
help.

There are also groups in Indonesia who are trying to take
advantage of the situation and exploiting their women, making it
financially expensive to work as maids.

Like their male colleagues, these Indonesian girls most
probably have to take out loans to pay the recruitment agencies
in the republic before they could gain employment overseas, not
only in Malaysia but other countries as well.

While most Malaysians may not know what is going on in
Indonesia before allowing these women to leave its shores to
work, they are more familiar with some of the antics used by
local employment agencies.

Malaysian employers of Indonesian maids are charged several
thousand ringgit for this privilege and many of them had agreed
to this arrangement because they had no choice.

It is unclear what this special charge is for. The agencies
say that the money is used for administrative expenses,
supposedly to include the training of the maids.

If the performance of many of the maids is anything to go by,
then the money would have been a waste as many had not the
slightest clue on how to do their household duties.

If it is meant for after-sale service, then it may be
acceptable. However, in many cases the employers have found
themselves in a dilemma when they have difficulties with their
maids.

The employers would have to bear the consequences, especially
in finance, if their maids should decide to run away. They would
not be able to claim any compensation from the agencies.

If the employers should decide to recruit another maid from
the same suppliers, then they would have to pay for such a
replacement. Either the employer accepts this arrangement or
there will be no maid.

What is even more jarring is that some greedy agencies are
recycling their maids and may encourage them to leave their
present employers so that they could be offered to other families
keen to employ them.

The whole purpose of this scam is to enable these unethical
agencies to make more money at the expense of the many working
couples desperate for a maid to look after their children and
their homes during their absence.