These days a lot of finger pointing has taken place regarding domestic help. To begin with, I am against any kind of injustice and I demand laws that define the rights and responsibilities of household workers in the Gulf region. I also believe that we need to stop feeling and acting superior and arrogant and that no one should be working anywhere against his/her will. Having said this, I point out that many employers are also taken advantage of. Therefore, the rights and responsibilities of employers must be defined as well. Justice and fairness is a two way street and we should be fair to both employer and employee at the same time. Neither being rich nor being poor justifies injustice! The Indonesian ambassador in Riyadh said that the Embassy receives 30 complaints per day from Indonesian workers. Let us assume that 50 percent of this is true which makes solid 15 complaints a day. This gives us about 450 a month and 5,400 a year of complaints. This number is large, but it must be examined because there are hundreds of thousands house helps in Saudi Arabia and there are also a number of counterclaims by employers. I am not saying that it is OK to abuse, but I am asking you to look at the other side of the picture. Lately, many ladies I know, who do not overwork or abuse their household helpers or withhold their salaries, have house helper who run away, in many cases just after the end of the three-month probation period. These ladies are average Saudis who work hard to earn their keeps. They pay SR10,000 or more to the agency which supplies the household helpers, when they see that their money vanished in thin air, they are hurt and they have nowhere to complain to. They cannot get their money back, let alone their time and effort, they spent to get the helpers. To solve the problem, the Saudi government has approved two employment companies lately. I think this is a good solution to start with because the companies can work well with both parties and can address problems when they occur. I suggest that these companies should define working hours, rights and responsibilities for both parties and that they make it possible to hire helpers per day or for a number days per week because a lot of people live in relatively small apartments. In some cases, helpers may be needed only for certain hours or days; in other cases, families may not want someone living with them all the time. This is good for workers as well because it gives them privacy and personal fulfillment since they will not be tied to one person or a family. This means that new logistic arrangement has to be worked out, but sorting the problems as clearly as possible will lessen tension that may arise in employing domestic helpers. * The author can be reached at [email protected] __
