RIYADH/DAMMAM: The recruitment of housemaids from the Philippines remains suspended, a situation that displeases many Saudi employers seeking to employ these household workers. A meeting that took place in Manila last week between a delegation from the Saudi National Recruitment Committee (SANARCOM) and a Philippine panel composed of representatives from the Department of Labor, Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) failed to agree on the amount of compensation for Filipino housemaids bound for Saudi Arabia. “During the negotiations, SANARCOM offered a monthly salary of $200 for a housemaid, which was rejected by the Philippine panel,” Philippine labor officials told Saudi Gazette. The Philippine government, labor officials said, is sticking to the POEA ruling that the minimum wage for a housemaid is $400 per month. Before the SANARCOM delegation traveled to Manila, it had insisted that the prevailing market price of a housemaid's salary is in the range of $250 to $300. In addition to the $200 monthly wage, Philippine labor officials said SANARCOM also offered what it called an additional incentive pay of $10 per Friday. This was also rejected. SANARCOM did not explain what the $10 additional payment is for, and whether this amount would be added to the $200 proposed monthly salary if the housemaid agrees to work on Fridays. Under Saudi law, housemaids are entitled a day-off every Friday. The Philippine panel is also reviewing SANARCOM's request that the housemaid recruitment process be simplified. Philippine labor offices in the Kingdom require employers who wish to hire housemaids to submit, together with their application, documents, such as a police clearance, location map of the employer's residence, verification of the employer's salary, details of the workload and the number of family members. These documents are being required to protect household workers from abuse, according to Philippine labor officials. Although the panel rejected the $200 salary offer, it still has to refer the offer to POEA, which is the deciding body regarding the salaries and compensation of overseas workers. “It is, however, a forgone conclusion that the POEA will reject the $200 salary SANARCOM offer,” Philippine labor officials said. There was also no breakthrough in the negotiations between Indonesia and SANARCOM when the latter traveled to Jakarta after its trip to Manila. “As far as I know, no agreement was reached, which is why my government proposed that government-to-government negotiations be convened in Riyadh on May 23-24 to discuss all labor issues between the two countries, including those related to the hiring of housemaids,” Hendrar Pramutyo, consul general at the Indonesian embassy in Riyadh, told Saudi Gazette. He said that the Jakarta government prefers to discuss labor matters on a bilateral level - on a government-to-government basis – between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Indonesia requires employers seeking to recruit housemaids or drivers to submit certification that they have a minimum monthly salary of SR 6,000 to SR8,000. Like the Philippines, Indonesia also requires Saudi employers to detail in their application the workload of the housemaid and the number of members of the Saudi family. SANARCOM sources at the Council for Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry said the Saudi side is confident that the problems related to the hiring of housemaids will be resolved very soon.
