[opinion] Stop treating maids like slaves

Opinion

September 12, 2009

Thestar online

HOW many of us really treat our maids and foreign workers well? How many can say that we are innocent victims and that we should not pay our maids or foreign workers RM800 a month?

Giving them money and material goods does not mean that we are giving them the best.

Do we communicate with them like we do with our local employees? When they need a listening ear, do we lend them one?

We pay them and any problem they have is none of our business. They take our money and do the job we want. Some of us even stop our maids from having friends.

Folks, are we hiring a maid or using her as a slave?

Malaysians generally are not willing to invest in training. This includes training our maids. We can't just expect them to do everything the way we want if we don't show them how.

Did we not try to bargain down the price with the maid agencies? If we keep bargaining for ridiculous prices, chances are they will give in but supply lower quality maids.

Also, foreign labourers are very hardworking and often local employees of the same job level just watch and direct them.

I recall one occasion when foreign labourers in a company went on strike.

The locals suddenly found themselves handicapped without them.

We need them to help us do the jobs that we do not want to do.

Would we do their job for RM800 a month? Even if we do, would we do it wholeheartedly?

We get training every time we land a new job in a new company. Can't we do likewise for our maids so that they carry out the job the way we want them to?

I am not saying that all foreign maids or workers are always right, but why do we expect our poorly paid workers to be perfect? If they are really that good, do you think they will work for RM800 a month?

RTC WENN,

Petaling Jaya.