MALAYSIA AGREES ON FOUR ISSUES ON INDONESIAN MAIDS

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has agreed on four issues
on Indonesian housemaids, namely one day off per week, insurance coverage,
improving the standard contract, and monthly or regular salary payment.

Human Resource Minister Dr S. Subramaniam said these were the only
areas that both countries had agreed upon following discussions several months
ago, while the other issues would be discussed at the next meeting.

"The date (of the meeting) has been deferred as they requested. (The
meeting)... not this Wednesday," he said after launching the Asia e-Learning
Conference, here, Monday.

The bilateral meeting, he added, would involve him and Indonesian Labour
Minister Erman Suparno in Kuala Lumpur by the end of this month.

The meeting comes in the wake of Indonesia's announced decision to stop
sending housemaids to Malaysia until this coming meeting to discuss a new
migrant worker agreement following reported cases of maid abuse.

"The discussion will be continual. We will agree on areas which we think we
can agree on and we are also asking them to fulfil some of our requests, so that
we can create an environment which both sides are happy about," Dr Subramaniam
said.

On e-education, that is, online learning and CD-based learning which allows
individuals to access courses without being bound by time, space and level, he
said the government hoped that all Malaysians could utilise it but did not set a
target.

On the 11 "goodies" announced by Najib Razak in conjunction with
his 100th day as prime minister, Dr Subramaniam these were for the good of the
people.

"This was to inform the people that the government would always put the
needs and interests of the people first," he said.

-- BERNAMA