DAMMAM: The Saudi National Recruitment Committee (SANARCOM) plans to establish Saudi mega recruitment companies that will act as general service companies in recruiting and bringing in foreign workers, including housemaids and family drivers, from manpower exporting countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia. An official of SANARCOM at the Council of Saudi Chambers in Riyadh said large, well-organized Saudi recruitment firms with better management and bigger capitalization will be able to do a better job in recruiting foreign manpower than small placement establishments. He said the larger recruitment firms will operate with improved recruitment processes and thus ensure better protection to foreign workers, particularly household workers such as housemaids and family drivers. As proposed, Saudi government agencies and employers will be directed to deal only with the mega recruitment companies, eliminating in the process individual recruiters and fly-by-night employment agencies, which are often the root cause of misunderstandings between workers and employers. The plan to set up mega recruiting companies, suggested to be capitalized at SR50 million, is one of the proposals SANARCOM is offering manpower exporting countries in return for a relaxation of new requirements and regulations in hiring domestic workers. Exporting countries, like the Philippines, require Saudi employers to produce police clearance, location of the employers' residence, and amount of salary, among other documentation, in their application to recruit housemaids. Indonesia requires that an employer seeking to recruit a housemaid or a driver must have a minimum monthly salary of SR6,000 to SR8,000. Details of the workload and the number of family members must also be specified in the application to recruit Indonesian household workers. The question of salary has been a subject of discord between labor exporting countries and Saudi employers. For example, the Philippine government has ruled that the basic salary of household service workers is $400 monthly. SANARCOM is insisting that the prevailing market price of a housemaid's salary is in the range of $250 to $300. Sources at the SANARCOM office at the Council of Saudi Chambers said that Saad Badah, the chairman of SANARCOM, visited the Philippines last week and presented a package of proposals to further ensure the protection of housemaids. The SANARCOM proposals are now being studied by the Philippine government. The hiring of new household service workers from the Philippines has been temporarily suspended pending the easing of recruitment procedures between the Philippines and the Kingdom. The SANARCOM delegation traveled to Jakarta from Manila to discuss issues of labor contract verification. Badah presented to the Jakarta government the same package he offered to the Philippines.
