MANPOWER DEPARTMENT SETS UP UNIT TO OVERSEE WELFARE OF MAIDS

PETALING JAYA, June 16 (Bernama) -- The Manpower Department will set up a
special advisory and enforcement unit to look into the welfare and assist
abused maids, Human Resources Minister Dr S.Subramaniam said Tuesday.

The proposed unit would make random checks on households to ensure that
maids were not abused, he told a news conference after opening the 7th
International Transport Federation (ITF) Asia Pacific Regional Conference here.

"These officers will make very polite and social calls and will assist
both employers and maids. They will not be aggressive in anyway," he said.

Subramaniam said the ministry was also printing small booklets with all the
relevant phone numbers and addresses of the various labour offices in the
country for distribution via the Immigration Department.

"When employers go to the department to renew or apply for the visas , they
will be given this booklet to be passed on to the maids," he said.

Commenting on the recent abuse of an Indonesian maid, Siti Hajar,
Subramaniam said it was an exception rather than a norm because 99 per cent of
Malaysian families were good employers.

"After all, these things (abuse) also happen in other countries as it is a
human problem, so Malaysia is no exception," he said.

However, it was the Malaysian government's policy to protect the rights and
dignity of workers, including maids, he said.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) felt that the
long-term solution to the abuse of maids was to amend the Employment Act 1955,
and extend its coverage to maids, which was covered currently.

MTUC's Vice-President, A. Balasubramaniam told Bernama that the other long-
term solution was to make it compulsory to give these maids a one day off each
week to allow them to make complaints or seek assistance if they face problems
at the workplace.

On the proposed National Retrenchment Fund, Subramaniam said that the
government had sought the assistance of the International Labour Organisation
(ILO) to work out a mechanism for the fund.

He expected the ILO to come up with a workable model by the end of the year
and "perhaps it will take another year for us to amend the relevant laws to
implement the scheme."

He said the fund would be financed by contributions from employers and
employees.

The fund was first proposed by the MTUC 10 years ago. The MTUC proposal was
one ringgit monthly by the employees and the amount to be matched by the
employers.

On the issue of unfair dismissal and other labour disputes, he said the
ministry was now working on a model to provide strong reconciliatory mechanism
so that settlement could be done speedily and satisfactorily.

He said that once the mechanism was in place thee would be less need to
refer such cases to the industrial court.

At present almost 65 per cent of such cases were settled at the
conciliatory stage and of the remaining 35 per cent, not all were referred to
the courts, he added.
-- BERNAMA