Compulsory Weekly Day Off For Domestic Workers

Monday, June 15, 2009

KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) wants the government to declare a compulsory weekly day off for domestic workers to enable them to go to the Labour Department in case they need to report any mistreatment.

Referring to the case of Indonesian maid Siti Hajar who calimed that she was abused by her employer for the past three years, MTUC secretary-general G. Rajasekaran said this measure must be taken due to the rising reports of abuse, torture and inhumane treatment among foreign domestic workers.

"Compelling domestic workers to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year is not illegal," he said, adding that this group of workers, numbering more than 300,000 throughout the country, were also not entitled to any legal protection.

"The only protection the workers have is that they can go to the Labour Department to complain about non-payment of monthly salaries, but without a weekly day off they are denied free movement," he said in a statement here Tuesday.

He urged the Human Resources Ministry not to turn a blind eye to these reports as thousands of foreign domestic workers in the country were made to endure beatings, poor living conditions, and suffer in silence.

Siti Hajar, 33, from west Java, who could no longer stand the abuses, fled from her employer's residence in Lanai Kiara Kondominium, Mount Kiara, yesterday.

She also claimed that she had not been paid any salary since the first month of her employment and the total salary due to her now stands at RM17,000.

The Indonesian ambassador here, Tan Sri Da'i Bactiar, told reporters yesterday that Siti Hajar was not only beaten but was only fed plain rice and occasionally with pork.