No minimum wage for Saudi maids

Saudi Arabia’s National Recruitment Committee has ruled out any move towards a minimum wage for domestic maids.

Chairman of the committee Saad Al-Baddah said no decision would be made until “problems in the status of the maids are resolved”, Arab News reported yesterday.

Al-Baddah said problems including maids running away after signing contracts to work illegally, and a lack of adequate skills must be addressed. Illegal maids are often paid higher salaries by families avoiding charges incurred by following official procedures, he said.

The Philippines said earlier this year maids would not be granted permission to work overseas unless they were guaranteed a minimum wage of $400 per month plus an annual home visit paid for by the sponsor.

A common loophole exists however where maids sign a work contract in the Philippines to obtain a visa, then a second contract for a lower wage on arrival in Saudi Arabia.

The country, along with Indonesia, supplies the majority of domestic help in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Baddah rejected the move by the Philippines and said recruiters should look elsewhere. Recruiters who meet the minimum-wage demands of foreign governments are in breach of committee recommendations about the need to resolve problems before a move to increase wages is made, he claimed.

The committee’s stance applied to maids of all nationalities, Al-Baddah said. “The refusal applies to the recruitment of other nationalities as long as the conditions the committee is stating are not met and the problems are not resolved,” he said.