We must cease relying on foreign maids

CHOK SUAT LING 

nst online

2009/09/10

CAN'T live with them, can't live without them. Domestic helpers, that is.

Many households now are entirely dependent on hired help. Maids clean and cook and, like Alfred Pennyworth to Batman, are also assistants, confidantes and surrogate parents in many homes.

While most domestic helpers are treated as part of the family, there have been isolated cases of maid abuse. These have resulted in Indonesia temporarily banning the sending of domestic workers to Malaysia and calling for better pay and working conditions for them.

Better pay, according to Indonesia, means an RM800 minimum wage, a figure that has caused employers and agencies to recoil in horror. It is unacceptable for an untrained domestic worker to be paid such a princely sum, employers snort. Those who have been left high and dry by their multitudes of feckless maids would doubtless agree.

Indonesia will not likely cave in on this issue, one of many that have tested the traditionally testy relationship between the two nations. For now, there appears no end to this squabble. The stalemate might persist as long as H1N1. But if the situation is intractable, and a win-win solution unrealistic, why even bother striking a compromise? Can't we just do without maids?

Can't we scrub our own toilets (or pay a cleaning service to do it), and arrange alternative means of childcare?

Yes, we can -- if one spouse stops working and takes on the under-appreciated role of home manager, that is, or banishes all aspirations to climb the career ladder. The image of a supermum who can manage both work and home equally is a myth.

Malaysia's rapid growth and the increasing competition it has brought have led to the proliferation of double-income households, where both spouses have to work, and work long hours, just to make ends meet.

Someone has to take care of the kids, but many parents agree that it would be easier to scale the Petronas Twin Towers barehanded than to secure good and affordable childcare. After all, local maids and babysitters are as elusive as Himalayan yeti.

If Malaysians are to end their reliance on foreign maids, there must be sufficient support at the workplace. Unfortunately, such support continues to be sorely lacking despite repeated calls for companies to institute flexible working hours and set up creches. Firms remain reluctant to take on the responsibility of providing suitable conditions for working women.

It is ironic that while there is a ready pool of female workers to ease the labour shortage, there have been no serious efforts to create an environment conducive to their needs.

In 2001, it was reported that women could look forward to more nurseries, kindergartens and opportunities to work from home "in the near future". These were issues addressed in the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005). Not much progress was made.

In 2004, Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil acknowledged that progress in the setting-up of nurseries and childcare centres in the country had been "extremely slow".

"If we want to move forward," she said, "there should be no more excuses for not setting up nurseries or childcare centres, given that half of our workforce are women."

Five years later, little has changed. Fewer than 30 companies have set up creches, despite tax rebates and grants offered by the government. Others cite cost, logistics, manpower and safety as impediments. These are merely excuses. The stumbling blocks are those in authority who do not want to change the status quo.

It can be done if there is a will. The Securities Commission, Tenaga Nasional, Sime Darby and Kuala Lumpur City Hall have, and they report less absenteeism among workers.

It may appear difficult to institute change, especially with employers dragging their feet on doing what is right by their employees, but it is crucial that everything be done to reduce to zero our reliance on foreign maids.

If businesses are not going to rise to voluntary commitment, there needs to be compulsion by law. Make it mandatory to review existing business and corporate structures rooted in a time when most women were not in the workforce.

That is imperative, because foreign domestic helpers cannot be our long-term solution to childcare.

sling@nst.com.my