Sunday, September 6, 2009

RM800 a month for an Indonesian maid?

I am not paying RM800 a month for an Indonesian maid. Period.

I have had far too many bad experiences with Indonesian maids and I am not about to waste RM800 a month, just to have them run away again. Worse, agents these days demand RM7,000 in fees for a maid.

Indonesia is dependent on Malaysia to feed 1.7 million of its workers here, both legal and illegal. It should stop making demands. My Malaysian friends who live in Jakarta and elsewhere in Indonesia pay their maids only between RM50-RM100 a month. Their Indonesian drivers are paid between RM70 and RM100 a month.

So why is the Indonesian government making such demands for their citizens employed as maids here? If they are university graduates, it is a different matter all together. Most of the Indonesians who come to Malaysia to work as maids are illiterate. They can take care of the children, but not "nanny" them. It is a different matter with the Filipinas.

An average Malaysian cannot afford RM800 a month. Imposing such a high minimum wage, will lead to other problems.

More and more people will begin to employ illegals as maids because they will not demand a minimum wage. Even if they do, it's not going to be as high as RM800.

There will be other problems as well. Tekongs will bend over backwards to bring in more illegals because with the new ruling, the demand for illegal maids will increase many folds. There will be an influx of illegal Indonesians entering Malaysia.

As illegals, they will have no where to turn to if they don't get paid, mistreated or even abused. They will not lodge reports for fear of getting arrested for entering the country illegally. Unscruplous employers will take advantage of them and treat them as slaves.

If we look at the bigger picture, imposing too high of a minimum wage will eventually lead to a diplomatic problem between Indonesia and Malaysia.

I think it is about time that we should seriously reconsider employing Indonesians in all sectors. We can always source workers from other countries which do not make ridiculous demands.

Good neighbourliness is a two-way thing.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ignore the Indons. They are worst than melepaskan Anjing yang tersepit. Mereka tidak pernah bersyukur dan berterima kasih kepada kita.

To me they dont deserve a penny from us. Bodohlah kerajaan Malaysia kalau benarkan ini berlaku.

NanaDJ said...

Saudara,
Please read my experience with Indon maid in The Star today. I too feel very strongly that RM800 is just too much. Even RM 600 which I am paying my current maid is not worth it having to go through what I have mentioned in my letter to the Editor today.
Salam.

Sivaraman said...

Perhaps it high time Malaysians took a good look at ourselves and try to do more on our own. This over-dependence on foreign labour isn't healthy. Come to think of it, it could be dangerous. Imagine a day when all foreign labour leave...just think about for a moment, scary isn't it. Chaos in households, economy at a stand still, restaurants closed, construction sites all quiet...

Sharen Kaur said...

people are saying we are too nice to our neighbours...we are!

in the last one week, i have heard too many horror stories about Indon maids...spitting in food when they cook it, pinching a child below two years to let out their anger, stealing (ah, too many stories!), running away with their Malaysian boyfriends, letting their boyfriends enter the house when owners are away, spoiling and breaking things....

looks like the Indonesian maids are the hottest topic to talk about over teh tarik, wan tan noodles, and even chappati!!