The head of the Kingdom's national housemaid's recruiting office has absolved his organization of any blame for housemaids running away from their sponsors. Chairman of the National Committee for Istiqdam, Sa'ad Al-Baddah, said that there were other reasons for these domestic workers running away from their employers. Speaking at a conference held in Riyadh Monday on the rights and duties of Indonesian laborers, Al-Baddah said that escapees constitute only 10 percent of the total employed, and only one percent of workers do so in the first three months. For this reason, he ruled out the possibility of increasing the three-month trial period for these workers. Al-Baddah said there is currently no legal housemaid service operating domestically for renting housemaids for short periods of time. “Renting a housemaid is a breach of regulations and the penalty can mean imprisonment,” he said, in reference to the fact that contracts for housemaids are usually for a period of a year at a time and should be done through the proper channels. Al-Baddah said that this does not apply to male domestic workers. He said that the committee's next strategy involves cooperation with the Ministry of Labor to establish an Istiqdam company to receive about 10,000 housemaids in all five provinces of the country. This company, he said, will be responsible for the workers' medical examination and training and for opening bank accounts for them. The matter has been submitted to the Council of Ministers through the Ministry of Labor, he added. Al-Baddah said a memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Tajikistan government to recruit males for a salary of SR1,000 a month, and females with their husbands, for SR750 a month. Channels have also been opened with the Ivory Coast and Cambodia for workers, he said. Al-Baddah admitted that there are shortcomings in terms of training for housemaids, saying that a nine-article agreement has been struck with Indonesian labor unions to ensure domestic workers are trained by licensed centers. “This will solve 70 percent of the issue,” he said.
