Kuala Lumpur - 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 per cent 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.
'The Human Resources Ministry can no longer remain silent as it is
part of the abuse and exploitation of domestic workers,' said Irene
Fernandez, president of Tenaganita, a Malaysian non-governmental
organization focusing on protecting the rights of migrant workers.
'Tenaganita has handled more than 188 cases of domestic workers
who have been abused, raped and exploited with intense human rights
violations. The government must attack the root causes of such forms
of abuse and exploitation,' she said.
'It is only when domestic workers are recognized as workers and
protected through effective legislation that we can say justice is
done.'
In response to the criticisms, Minister of Human Resources S
Subramaniam recently announced a ruling ordering a compulsory day off
each week for all domestic maids.
He said the government was working on other legal amendments to
better protect the workers.
Aside from the abuse cases, officials from Malaysia and Indonesia
are expected to iron out the issue of the Indonesian maids' low wages
of 500 ringgit (136 dollars) a month, which is half of what maids
from the Philippines earn.
In neighbouring Singapore, Indonesian maids are paid a minimum of
800 ringgit while Hong Kong and Taiwan employers pay them a minimum
of 1,300 ringgit.
The reason given for their lower wages is that most Indonesian
workers in Malaysia lack work experience, and also a basic command of
English.
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