The Star/Asia News Network
Tuesday, Nov 13, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR - The Malaysian government is negotiating a revised cost-structure for Indonesian maids with the Indonesian government, the Malaysian Association of Foreign Maids Agencies (PAPA) said.
Its president Jeffry Foo said that under the revised structure, the costs of hiring maids would be higher to match market supply and demand.
"The cost should be about RM7,000 (S$2,800) to RM9,000," Foo said, speaking at a press conference held at the MCA headquarters here.. "But we leave it to the government to negotiate with their Indonesian counterparts to come up with a fair price."
He added however, that the government would be negotiating to have Indonesian maids bear a higher cost of their agency fees in order not to burden employers too much.
Under the current memorandum of understanding between Indonesia and Malaysia, the one-off agency fee for the hiring of an Indonesian house-maid is fixed at RM4,511, of which RM2,711 has to be paid by the employer and the remaining RM1,800 by the maid.
Foo said PAPA had not agreed with the terms of the memorandum when it was first signed in Bandung last year, but had consented to giving it a trial run.
He said the low costs for maids set out by the memorandum meant maids preferred to go to other places such as Taiwan and Hong Kong for higher pay, resulting in a local shortage.
"According to immigration data, only about 90 Indonesian maids were approved since last year, with about 60 coming in." Foo said, adding Malaysian requirements were estimated at around 50,000 maids a year.
According to Foo, the government had agreed to take up PAPA's proposal to re-examine the current price-structure, and would be heading to Indonesia in a few weeks for what he hoped would be the final stages of negotiation.
He said most of the memorandum's security provisions would remain in place, such as the six-month maid replacement guarantee period.
Foo said PAPA had also raised the issue that the current procedure of getting a maid was overly time-consuming.
"We have to fill up something like 200-300 pages just to bring in one Indonesian housemaid, which can take from three to four months to process," Foo said. "This is ridiculously tedious and expensive."
He added the shortage of maids had caused many people to resort to illegal agents, who would charge them up to RM15,000-16,000 for a maid.
