Errant Indon Maid Agencies May Find Licences Revoked

PUTRAJAYA: Maid agencies still charging the old and expensive rates for supplying Indonesian domestic help will have their operating licence revoked, said Deputy Home Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho.

He urged the victims to lodge complaints with the Immigration Department.

“We will investigate and act against the maid agencies involved, including revoking their operating licence,” he said.

He said the ministry had received many complaints that agencies here were charging three times more than the prescribed RM2,415 for Indonesian domestic help.

Many had complained of being charged more than RM6,000 for a maid.

He said some employers claimed that the agencies charged RM2,400 for miscellaneous fees such as levy, medical check-up and local agency fee, and a further RM1,400 as fee for the Indonesian agency.

They would also have to pay RM2,450 described as the “maid’s loan from the Indonesian agency”.

“We will call for a dialogue session with the maid agencies soon to ask why they have not complied,” Tan told reporters after the National Registration Department monthly gathering here yesterday.

The ruling to cap the fees came about after the minister Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with his Indonesian counterpart in Jakarta.

Among other things, the MoU stated that maids would have to pay their agents RM1,300, a sum the employers have to pay in advance and then deduct from the maids’ monthly wages.
Asked about the Philippines government setting the minimum monthly salary of RM1,430 for their maids, Tan said the ministry “had a few proposals” in mind but declined to elaborate.

BY SIM LEOI LEOI
Source : STAR
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