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Mary Ann Benitez

Indonesian maids have won the support of their consulate in having costly agency fees scrapped when renewing contracts with their employer.

Indonesian Consul Mustisidibba Yatim said domestic-helper agencies registered with the consulate would be expected to embrace the change. The agencies had been charging maids $5,500 - more than twice the monthly wage of many underpaid Indonesian maids - every time a contract was renewed.

The new arrangement meant an employer could renew a contract directly with maids, without having to go through a recruitment agency, Mr Yatim said.

The policy shift comes after a long campaign against excessive agency fees by domestic-helper groups, which say Indonesian maids are increasingly being exploited and mistreated.

Eleven Indonesian maids are staying in a shelter in Hong Kong after suffering abuses at the hands of their bosses or employment agencies. The women left their jobs for reasons ranging from violence to underpayment.

One maid said she was burned with a hot iron for falling asleep on the job. Another said she was forced to pay $30,000 to recruitment agencies while being told to 'try out' for five employers in two months - receiving only daily 'pocket money' in return.

All the women in the shelter say they were underpaid, receiving between $200 and $1,500 a month. They remain in debt to recruitment agencies. Refuge director Edwina Santoyo, who did not want the shelter to be named, said the women had nothing to spend in Indonesia as they waited for the processing of their contracts and visas. 'But upon arrival in Hong Kong, the recruitment agencies will be collecting the placement fees,' she said.

The women usually take out loans at financing companies recommended by labour agencies. The maids then paid off the loan with interest by instalment, she said, a process made difficult when the women received far less than stipulated in their contracts.

'Every month my employer only gives me $200 in cash while forcing me to sign a receipt written in English for the amount of $3,860,' one woman said.

Mrs Santoyo said Indonesians were more vulnerable to abuse than other domestic helpers. 'For the past three months they have outnumbered the Filipinas seeking shelter here,' she said.

The Indonesians' worsening plight reflects the rapid rise in their numbers in the SAR, Mrs Santoyo said. Immigration Department figures show there were 54,600 Indonesian domestic helpers as of November last year.

Eni Andayai, chairwoman of the Indonesian Migrant Workers' Association, said: 'From my own experience, I was told that because Filipinas can speak English, and we can't speak English, we can't get salaries higher than $2,000.'

When Ms Andayai realised the minimum wage of $3,860 applied to all domestic helpers of all nationalities, she filed a labour complaint. She settled for half of the $26,000 she said was owed. Like other maids, Ms Andayai said when contracts were renewed she had to pay $5,500 to agencies approved by the consulate.

A volunteer at the shelter said official figures did not reveal the extent of abuse of domestic helpers because most women went home without seeking redress. 'They have no money, no job, they miss their family and get tired. They just give up. They've worked for nothing,' she said.

Joseph Law, vice-chairman of the Employers of Overseas Domestic Helpers Association, agreed there were still problems of Indonesian maids being underpaid.

Mr Yatim said: 'Being underpaid is a problem. But we have worked hard to improve their condition.' He believed cases of physical assault on Indonesian women were rare.

Hong Kong Labour Department figures show that 1,786 pay and contract claims involving foreign domestic helpers were handled between January and October last year. This compared with 2,280 for the whole of 1999.



Indonesian maids press for pay safeguards to end exploitation