To face the increasing cost of living, many families today are two-income families; with both the husband and wife working. To manage their homes then, including taking care of their children, the families hire maids. Yet consumers continue to suffer from the entire maid employment process.

It has indeed become very expensive today to employ a maid. Yet, the National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC) continues to receive complaints concerning the issue of hiring maids. The monetary loss by consumers due to their maid problems was more than RM2 million in 2015.

The most common issue is that of the maid running away. And then in order to get a replacement, the consumer had to pay an additional fee. This is because of the unfair nature of the contract between the consumer and the maid agency that is if the maid runs away within a span of three month (depending on the time frame stated in the contract) the owner has to pay additional fees.

It appears to be that the agreement between the maid agency and the consumer are one-sided and it’s favouring the maid agencies. Many maid agencies only provide three (3) months warranty in cases of runaway maids. Once the warranty period lapse, these agencies will not take any responsibility for any liability or obligations arising thereafter.

Another major complaint by consumers is the poor services of the agency in handling the maid recruitment. It appears that very often the maid provided by the agency was incompetent in undertaking the household work or caring of a child.

Further, if due to the incompetency of the employed maid, the consumers seek for an exchange of the maid, the complainant has to wait for long periods and no time frame was given. The reason given is that the delay is because of the need to apply for visa, medical report, and immigration issues.

Due to this delay, often the complainant will seek for a refund and in some cases received by the NCCC, the agencies refused or were reluctant to comply with the complainant’s request for a refund.

From the complaints received by NCCC, it appears to be as if there is no basic agreement to fall back on and the agencies have been stating their own terms and conditions which only have the effect of protecting their own interests and liability. Therefore, consumers are advised to read the terms and conditions thoroughly to ensure they understand the terms and negotiate to get a fair deal.

If you are facing the same problem or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact NCCC at [email protected]/www.nccc.org.my/03-78769000

SHABANA NASEER is senior manager, legal and policy, Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca)/National Consumer Complaints Centre (NCCC).