As today marks the International Solidarity Day with Foreign Migrant Domestic Workers, CARAM Asia and its members call on the Malaysian government to immediately amend the Employment Act to recognise domestic workers as workers instead of "servants' as currently in the law.

Indonesian newspapers ( Jakarta Globe , Aug 25) reported that Malaysia had agreed to the following:

  • Pay a minimum monthly wage of RM600 for Indonesian domestic workers and other migrant workers in the informal sector.
  • Allow Indonesian workers to hold on to their passports.
CARAM Asia is dismayed that after two months of negotiations, the Malaysian government has yet to announce and finalise the new terms and conditions of work for Indonesian domestic workers.

This demonstrates a lack of political will by the government to grant all domestic workers regardless of nationality the same range of labour protection as other categories of workers.

The International Solidarity Day with Foreign Migrant Domestic Workers was marked in Sri Lanka following a successful Colombo Summit on Foreign Domestic Workers in 2002.

It was then decided that Aug 28 should be used to highlight the plight of foreign domestic workers and the need to recognise their work as a valid employment by the international community.

It is deeply disconcerting to note that foreign domestic workers are continually subjected to abuse and exploitation.

Without the recognition of employment, domestic workers are continually denied a weekly paid day off, forced to work up to 16 hours a day due to a lack of a fixed number of working hours as well as being denied access to healthcare services.

CARAM Asia and its members, representing non-governmental organisations, community based organisations and trade unions recommend the following:

  • Governments must enact laws and adopt other measures to ensure that the rights of domestic workers are protected under legal framework.
  • All countries must immediately sign and ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW, 1990).
  • States must develop redress mechanisms for effective accountability of non-state actors such as labour recruitment agencies, employers and brokers for any violations against domestic workers.
  • Governments, trade unions and employer associations support and endorse the International Labour Organisations (ILO) new Convention for Domestic Workers and its supplementary recommendations.
Christopher Pearman is the information and communications officer at CARAM Asia .