Reduce maid age limit, Govt urged

The Star

PETALING JAYA: Maid agencies are calling on the Government to reduce the age requirement for domestic workers from 21 to 18 years old to meet current supply shortages in the market.

A memorandum representing 45 maid agencies was recently sent to the Home and Human Resource ministries to consider lowering the age requirements for the maids.

This was to allow more Cambodian maids to fill the void left by the freeze on Indonesian maids in June last year.

The management of several maid agencies said many of them were in dire straits and desperate for supply of foreign maids.

They said the reduction of the age requirement would enable another 10,000 to 15,000 additional maids to be brought in to meet local demand.

Agensi Pekerjaan Haz Sdn Bhd director Datuk Raja Zulkepley Dahalan, who is the former president of the Malaysian Association of Foreign Maid Agencies (Papa), said Cambodia had become the main source for maids following the Indonesian maids freeze last year.

He added that officials from Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training would be happy if Malaysia lowered the age requirement for maids.

“They are of the opinion that a maid will be mature enough to be fit for hire,” he added.

“On average, Malaysia needs 6,000 to 7,000 maids a month to meet demand and get replacements. With the current shortage, I don’t think we can even get 2,000 maids,” Raja Zulkepley said.

“We have had to decline requests for maids from our customers because of this shortage,” he added.

Raja Zulkepley also said many bumiputra-owned maid agencies were at risk of closure or had gone out of business due to the Indonesian ban.

Agensi Pekerjaan Sri Nadin Sdn Bhd director Fiona Low said many agencies had turned to Cambodia to source for maids because it was the best alternative at the moment. “Although we are pushing for an age reduction, it will just be a temporary reprieve to help us cope with the shortage. We need to find an end to the Indonesian ban because it remains the main problem,” Agensi Pekerjaan Sentosa Sdn Bhd director K.C. Lau said.

Papa president Alwi Bavutty said a plus point for the Cambodians was their good discipline record – the problem of them running away from their employers is non-existent.

By comparison, Alwi said 20% of Indonesian maids ran away from their employers.

He added that the Cambodians also got job training and attended English and Malay language classes in their homeland before they were sent to Malaysia.