I refer to the letter Give our 'kakak' a break!

I think we, the maids’ employers need a break too. We are suffering and I would like to appeal to all readers to lend us - the 'employers' - your ears. Our suffering begins the moments we realise that we need a 'helper', 'maid' or a 'kakak'.

It's not easy to fork out a couple of thousand ringgit (anything between five to eight thousand) for agents fees to acquire a maid. Given a choice, I wouldn't want to employ a maid but circumstances force us.

If you and your partner are working-class people and you got little children and old folks to attend to, what would you do ? Fork out a couple of thousands for a helper. That's what I did. I paid RM6,000 to the agent plus another RM700 for Fomema and the various Immigration Department fees.

Now, the risks involved in recruiting a maid is whether she is fit and whether she will complete her contracted term ie, for two years. Once, we got a maid who was found unfit by Fomema so a new replacement was given but she worked for about months before running off with an Indonesian worker.

This is where my troubles started for I had to get a new maid and had to incur the same costs involved.

I would like to ask the government to safeguard its own citizens’ interests first before those of foreign workers. We have so much risks involved and I feel the government should address our problems first.

For those who aren’t aware of the sufferings of a maid’s employer, I would like to enlighten them. The problems encountered are for example:

There is no guarantee that the maids recruited will stay for the contracted term.

Why is it each time a maid disappears, we, the employers, are compounded?

Why is it the agents are not bound by the authorities to safeguard the employers’ interest?

Why is it the agents are not held responsible?

Are the authorities aware that there is a syndicate that supplies maids but within a couple of months lures them away so that they can hire out new maids to the employers? I know of a friend who has ‘lost’ two maids within a short span of time and had to pay new fees for his new maids.

Why is it when a maid runs away our levies paid to the Immigration Department are forfeited?

Why is it the levy is not transferrable to a new maid?

Why is it Fomema charges fee even when a maid is found unfit?

Shouldn't this fee be borne by the supplier/agent?

Why are we not allowed tax exemptions against all these payments? After all, we are employers, aren’t we?

Now, the government is talking about a day off for maids. You know what's going to happen when they are given a day off? More maids will disappear.

I think the general public as well as the government should realise that maids are not 'pekerja kilang' or 'ladang'. They are helpers.

They don't work all day long and there have been cases, proven on CCTV, of maids mistreating young children, maids who watch TV all day long etc.

Most of these helpers don't work all day long. They are supposed to help. So if you want to give them a day off, who is going to help their employers? Can the government think of an alternative?