Star Online Report
Gulf
countries today agreed minimum facilities for domestic workers
including weekly holiday, annual leave and overtime pay in view of the
widely criticised working condition for over 2.4 million foreign maids
living there including from Bangladesh. The move came during a
meeting between Gulf labour ministers and their Asian counterparts in
Kuwait city on the condition of foreign labour in the region, reports
local media.
New contract for domestic workers entitles them for a weekly day off, annual leave and the right to live outside their employer’s house, Jamal Al-Dossari, director general of Kuwait’s Public Manpower Authority, told local reporters.
The unified Gulf contract for domestic helpers will take effect after approval from the Gulf labour ministers in the third Abu Dhabi Dialogue which began today in Kuwait city.
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain led a four-man group to barter for the over two lakh female Bangladeshi maids living in the Gulf countries.
If the contract is approved, the Bangladeshi maids will be benefited and their rights will be ensured under a legal net, said Muhammad Imran, Bangladeshi ambassador in Abu Dhabi.
“Our domestic workers will enjoy their rights including fixed working hour, salary, leave etc when the new system will be implemented,” he told The Daily Star over phone.
The working hour for the housemaids will be eight hours a day, Public Manpower Authority, Jamal Al-Dossari said.
Under the contract, domestic helpers are also entitled to end of service indemnity and overtime pay for extra work for a maximum of two hours daily.
“It bans employers from keeping the passports of their employees, ensures the freedom of domestic helpers to move or live outside the home of the employer and to travel at any time. It also commits employers to provide air tickets for the helpers at the end of the contract,” Al Dosari added.
The issue of expatriates working in the six Gulf countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE has been a hot international topic, due mainly to the existence of the controversial sponsorship system.
Under the system, foreigners cannot work in the Gulf unless they are sponsored by an employer. They cannot move on to another job or leave the country without their sponsors’ approval.
Employers argued that without the “regulatory system”, their businesses would be affected as employees tend to abscond or switch jobs even though they had invested money in bringing them into the country and, quite often, training them. End
Domestic
workers who travel abroad for employment are also a form of migrant
laborers, currently populating in the millions for Bangladeshis,
concentrated in the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia. Star file
photo
New contract for domestic workers entitles them for a weekly day off, annual leave and the right to live outside their employer’s house, Jamal Al-Dossari, director general of Kuwait’s Public Manpower Authority, told local reporters.
The unified Gulf contract for domestic helpers will take effect after approval from the Gulf labour ministers in the third Abu Dhabi Dialogue which began today in Kuwait city.
Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain led a four-man group to barter for the over two lakh female Bangladeshi maids living in the Gulf countries.
If the contract is approved, the Bangladeshi maids will be benefited and their rights will be ensured under a legal net, said Muhammad Imran, Bangladeshi ambassador in Abu Dhabi.
“Our domestic workers will enjoy their rights including fixed working hour, salary, leave etc when the new system will be implemented,” he told The Daily Star over phone.
The working hour for the housemaids will be eight hours a day, Public Manpower Authority, Jamal Al-Dossari said.
Under the contract, domestic helpers are also entitled to end of service indemnity and overtime pay for extra work for a maximum of two hours daily.
“It bans employers from keeping the passports of their employees, ensures the freedom of domestic helpers to move or live outside the home of the employer and to travel at any time. It also commits employers to provide air tickets for the helpers at the end of the contract,” Al Dosari added.
The issue of expatriates working in the six Gulf countries -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE has been a hot international topic, due mainly to the existence of the controversial sponsorship system.
Under the system, foreigners cannot work in the Gulf unless they are sponsored by an employer. They cannot move on to another job or leave the country without their sponsors’ approval.
Employers argued that without the “regulatory system”, their businesses would be affected as employees tend to abscond or switch jobs even though they had invested money in bringing them into the country and, quite often, training them. End
Published: 8:20 pm Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Last modified: 10:07 pm Wednesday, November 26, 2014
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