Puteri Umno has urged the Government not to give in to “extreme demands” by Indonesia over the domestic maid issue. Its chief Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin said giving in to demands such as a day off for Indonesian maids and allowing the maids to keep their own passport would pose a great risk to employers.

“The employer-maid contract has already included a provision for a day off. It is up to the discretion of employers to decide on their maids’day off. It is not a new agreement.

”Most employers in the country allow their maids to rest, socialise and go out, at times even more than a day,” she said in her speech at the Puteri delegates meeting at the Putra World Trade Centre here on Wednesday.

She said employers would have to bear a greater risk of their maids running away if they were allowed to keep their own passports.

Furthermore, she claimed, if maids were allowed to go out on their own, they would meet with other maids and start comparing work loads and salaries, as well as get involved in relationships, marry secretly or even became pregnant out of wedlock.

“When such incidents occur and foreign maids run away, who will get into trouble? Whose life will become topsy-turvy and who is going to be forced to pay the penalty for the offences committed by their maids?” she said.

She said the Indonesian government’s threat to freeze domestic maid intake and its demand for a minimum monthly salary of RM600 were “inappropriate” especially when the cost of recruitment was more than RM5,000 while the service was inefficient.

“Every negotiation should result in a win-win situation for the maids and the employers. Therefore, we want the Government, particularly the Human Resources Ministry, to make a stand.

“All new regulations cannot be agreed upon simply because there are demands. The welfare of employers in this country cannot be set aside just like that,” Rosnah said. . She said the maid issue reflected the “arrogance of certain quarters in Indonesia who make extreme demands.”

She also urged foreign maid agencies to be more creative and reduce their dependence on Indonesian maids by attracting and training locals to fill the demand.

She said hourly service rates could be introduced for local maids, as well as daily and weekly rates, so that Malaysians would consider taking up the job.-thestar