Badly beaten up maid in hospital: Malaysia should ratify the UN Convention

A number of issues need to be addressed when looking at the plight of foreign maids in Malaysia. We address three here: the rights of the foreign maids, the status of domestic work and the mindset of the employer.

Foreign maids - along with other migrant workers - have few rights as workers in this country. They are not covered under the Employment Act 1955 (which sets out minimum standards of conditions of employment) and as such are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

The Malaysian government must immediately secure the rights of all migrant workers by first ratifying the UN International Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and the Members of Their Families and then move on to enshrine its provisions as laws. A major provision in the Convention is that migrant workers should be treated no less favourably then workers who are citizens. This means giving them the same rights to holidays, fixed working hours, overtime and other benefits that the average citizen would enjoy at work. By ratifying the Convention and adopting its provisions into law, we would be protecting and upholding the dignity and rights of foreign maids -- and other often exploited migrant workers - in Malaysia.

It is ironic that, despite all the rhetoric we hear about ‘family values’, domestic work has been consistently undervalued. This has had severe and negative effects on the status of women in our society. It is this denigration of the effort involved in maintaining a home that leads to the thinking that the maid is somehow unworthy and therefore need not be respected, treated or paid properly. It is time for the government and all of us to recognise and value the importance of the household and be much more imaginative in our approach to the sharing and enhancement of parenting and other household responsibilities. Due respect for domestic workers is just a part of this.