Standard maid deal

By Ram Anand
The Malay Mail
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is in talks with several neighbouring countries, including Cambodia, to reach an accord on standardised contracts for foreign domestic helpers, similar to one signed recently with Indonesia.

READ: No direct maid recruitment

Human Resources Minister Datuk S. Subramaniam revealed yesterday efforts are underway to reach an understanding that could lift a temporary ban by Cambodian government imposed on its women from coming to Malaysia as domestic workers after an alleged increase in abuse cases involving Cambodian maids here.

"We are now trying to reach similar agreements with all countries which send domestic workers to Malaysia, like the MoU we signed with Indonesia.

"A standardised contract will be handed to such maids whereby they will be accorded one mandatory day off per week, and they will be allowed to keep their passports themselves," he said after officiating the Access to Justice for Migrant Workers conference at a hotel here.

The Malay Mail last week highlighted Cambodian parliamentarian Mu Sochua's call for Malaysia to hand out standardised contracts to all of its foreign domestic workers, so that the ban placed by the Cambodian government last Oct 15 could be lifted within three months.

The Cambodian government, according to her, wants their maids be given a mandatory day off each week, have a limit of eight working hours per day, and also for recruitment agencies not to deduct fees from the maids' salaries.

Regional non-governmental organisation CARAM Asia Bhd, which organised the conference officiated by Subramaniam, in its report revealed that out of 150 cases of migrant workers who were abused that it had documented up to this month, 116 cases had taken place in Malaysia.

"Migrant workers should no be seen as a mere commodity but as humans with entitled to equal rights and dignity," said CARAM Asia's regional co-ordinator Harun Al Rashid.

Subramaniam, however, said that Malaysian law affords the same protection to migrant workers that also applies to local citizens.

"Be it in terms of salary or working conditions, our law affords the same protection for locals and foreigners."

"However, many foreigners do not make what we call as informed decisions.

"They are not provided adequate information by their agencies about the country they are going to or about their rights. If they are aware of all this, they could report their cases to the police here and the police would treat the cases the same way it would for a local citizen."

Subramaniam said there are currently around 1.3 million illegal workers in Malaysia.

"With the new biometric identification system to be introduced soon, we expect to trace the history of all foreigners who enter and depart the country.

"That way, we will have better documentation and means to identify illegal workers in Malaysia."