BANGI: About 50,000 foreign workers at petrol stations nationwide are expected to have their services terminated this year following the implementation of the minimum wage.

Deputy Human Resource Minister Datuk Maznah Mazlan said the termination process would however depend on the contract between the workers and their employers. "When wages increase, we find that the employers will promote self-service in line with the rise in labour cost.

"We hope it will also attract the interest of local workers to fill part of the vacancies," she told reporters here on Tuesday.

The salary for petrol station workers before this was between RM600-RM700 a month.

The minimum wage will bring the salary to RM900 in the peninsula and RM800 in Sabah and Sarawak since Jan 1.

There are about 3,000 petrol stations operating throughout the country. On another issue, she said the number of domestic maids in the country had dropped drastically to 104,000 now compared to 320,000 in 2008.

"Since the freeze on Indonesian domestic maids was lifted on Dec 1, 2011, only 108 workers were brought in compared to about 7,000 applications a month in the past," she said.

Apart from efforts to restore the supply of domestic maid, the government was also seeking other long-term solutions with the introduction of the "Life Beyond Maids' concept, by empowering the existing infrastructure such as Community-Based Child Care Centre and Part-Time Domestic Helpers, she said.

Maznah said the problems of domestic maids could affect the nation's manpower especially among women who have to stop work to manage domestic activities. - Bernama

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