Saturday January 5, 2013

Fee structure for Indonesian maids to be raised to RM6,700

By P. ARUNA
aruna@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) has been given the green light by the Government to increase the fee structure for Indonesian domestic workers to RM6,700.

This is a RM2,189 increase from the RM4,511 agreed to in the memorandum of understanding signed between the Malaysian and Indonesian governments in 2011.

The revised cost structure follows lengthy discussions between the Human Resources Ministry, Papa and Indonesian maid agencies.

Papa president Jeffrey Foo, who announced this yesterday, said that besides the new fee, employers would also have to pay RM1,800 upfront as salary advance.

Despite the MoU, Indonesian maids trickled into the country as agencies cited the unrealistic cost structure as the cause.

“We believe this is a very reasonable fee and Malaysians will finally be able to get Indonesian domestic workers,” Foo said at a press conference here yesterday.

He explained that the actual cost for employers will only be RM6,700 as they could deduct the additional RM1,800 from the maid’s salary over the first six months.

Employers who register immediately could expect to get their domestic workers within the next three months by sending a text message with their names, MyKad number and e-mail address to 1800 222 000.

He added that Papa would guarantee that all its members would sign a statutory declaration to abide by the new fee. However, the new fee will not be made compulsory.

When contacted, a senior Human Resources Ministry official confirmed that the ministry had a meeting with the association yesterday, and agreed that the revised cost structure could be implemented with immediate effect.

The official, who declined to be named, said the minister had agreed to leave the cost structure to market forces and the “parties concerned”, which are the maid agencies, instead of dictating the cost.

The previously agreed sum in the MoU, said the official, had proven to be a failure as the agencies had not been able to bring in the maids at that price.

“The new figure proposed by the agencies has been acknowledged by the ministry, but we do not want to say anything to endorse this until both governments officially sign a revised agreement,” he said.

“This is because the cost structure which was agreed to in the existing MoU has not been abolished yet.”

News

Saturday January 5, 2013

Fee structure for Indonesian maids to be raised to RM6,700

By P. ARUNA aruna@thestar.com.my

By P. ARUNA
aruna@thestar.com.my