'Check out maids yourself before hiring them'

A string of robberies involving dishonest domestic helpers has added to the already high crime rate in the city. Police recently busted a syndicate specializing in robberies with the help of a maid planted in the household. The Jakarta Post talked to several city residents over the latest trend in robberies.

Santi, 28, is a working mother. She resides in Pondok Jaya subdistrict, South Jakarta, with her husband and son:

I don't believe in the domestic helpers provided by the manpower agencies as there have been many negative reports about them.

I cannot deny that economic hardship has motivated them to resort to crime. In addition, young female maids tend to behave mischievously once they start dating.

Besides, there are also criminal syndicates that employ domestic helpers as accomplices in robberies.

A friend of mine experienced that nightmare when her newly hired housemaid stole her cellular phone on the first day of work.

So, the safest way to employ someone is to hire a domestic helper whose personal identity, personality and background we know well. It's also good to know their sponsors who should be held responsible should anything untoward occur.

But, on the other hand, I suppose not all manpower agencies are unreliable. Those registered with the manpower ministry are more reliable, I guess. My current maid was recruited from such an agency. I had no other choice but to take a maid from the agency as it's difficult to get a good one by myself.

However, I plan to get a new one to look after my son, but I will look for one whom I can pay a lower salary. Now I have to pay Rp 350,000 (US$38.8) to the agency per month for my maid.

To avoid such crimes, I guess, the employer should be extra careful to keep their valuables in a safe place. Because, in a way, carelessness on the part of the employers encourages the maids to steal their valuables.

Edi, 31, is a driver for a company director in Sunter, North Jakarta. He lives with his wife and two children in Cimanggis, West Java:

I think it's difficult to know whether a maid is trustworthy or not.

Perhaps, those maids who steal are not working alone. I mean to say that they are in cahoots with criminals.

Even hiring a domestic helper from a manpower agency does not guarantee the housemaids' credibility.

I had once searched for a maid for my Korean boss. When I got one, my boss was asked to pay the agency as much as Rp 1 million to reimburse the fee for the training it had given to her.

Then the agency asked for a high salary for the hired maid and later on ordered that the salary be paid directly to the agency, saying that it was the agency that would pay the maid.

My boss complained that the agency was too demanding. Worse still, the agency was not responsible for the maid when she ran away from my boss' house a month later without any reason. Fortunately, she left without stealing my boss' belongings.

Fida, 29, is a housewife and employee at a private company in Central Jakarta. She resides in Ciledug, Tangerang with her family:

I reckon that it's not easy to get reliable domestic helpers to do our household work.

There are many maids who have the wrong motives in working for families.

We don't want to hire domestic helpers from a manpower agency because we have no assurance about the quality of the maids, and the hiring fee is so expensive.

I'm just afraid that we may hire the wrong person who conspires with criminals who direct them to steal from the family they are working for.

Therefore, my family has always tried to get maids from known sources. I mean to say that we always keep our ears open for information about good housemaids or sometimes we go directly to the villages where there are potential domestic helpers. If one seems reliable, we'll hire her.

At the moment, we have four housemaids working with us. Thank God, they work well. And they have been working with our family for more than two years now.