KUALA LUMPUR: THE government has plans to bring in maids from Nepal, said Human Resource Minister Datuk Seri Richard Riot yesterday.
However, the plans are still being discussed by the relevant authorities and will be finalised by the end of August, upon the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Malaysia and Nepal.
Riot said that during his last visit to Nepal, the ministry in charge of human resources had expressed an keen interest in sending over their people to Malaysia to work as domestic helpers.
“This looks like a good prospect to the country and I hope that we will find success in this collaboration.”
,” said Riot, who refused to elaborate further on the matter.
While maids from Indonesia, Philippines, India, Sri Lanka and Cambodia are commonly employed in Malaysia, Nepalese maids are still a rarity.
On the issue of Indonesian maids, Riot said the ministry would leave the recruitment of Indonesian maids to the Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa) and Malaysian Maid Employers Association (Mama).
He said the two non-governmental organisations would become the middleman between the Malaysian government and the Indonesian equivalent to Mama and Papa, Asosiasi Perusahaan Jasa Tenaga Kerja Indonesia (Apjati) and re cruitment agencies.
“The (Malaysian) government will be there monitoring the whole situation from behind the scenes.
“The government will not be involved directly as its going to be a business-to-business affair. As for the costing, it will be decided collectively by Mama and Papa, or by the re cruitment agencies,” Riot told reporters after launching Human Resource Development Berhad’s 13th annual gen eral meeting and launching its PSMB Act guide book, near here yesterday.
He said the previous government-to-government method in maid recruitment did not seem to work, and the problem that arose would be better handled in a business-to-business manner as money was a factor.
It is understood that Malaysia had previously agreed to fix the cost of hiring Indonesian maids to be set at RM7,800 starting in September last year.
However, no MoU was signed between Malaysia and Indonesia, as some had proposed that the matter should be at a business-to-business level.
In 2011, a previous MOU signed between both countries set the hiring cost of Indonesian maids to RM4,511. However, Mama refused to accept the rate claiming they would incur higher costs since they had to go to the interior to find maids.
Riot reiterated that the salaries of Indonesian maids would be determined by market prices and that the conditions would include 200 hours of training for them before being sent to Malaysia.
“Before this, maids were not trained at all. Some had not even seen a rice cooker, iron or refrigerator. As for the minimum wage regulation, it will not be applicable to maids,” he said.