Of maids n gangsters..

My maid finally had to be sent back as her work permit expired on the 21st of december 05. Was told that a replacement is available. As this maid was on temporary basis, assumed that the replacement was to be provided to me on my existing contract. To cut the story short, i was asked to pay another RM 4900, and some more money was requested to send the maid home and some other dodgy stuff.

With all due respect to my agent (no need to mention who lah kan), I told her to keep the maid, give me back whatever was due back to me, and settled whatever was needed to send my maid back.. To be frank, it wasn't very nice how they were being treated.

Nevertheless, my take on this one is that it is the nature of the biz, no transparency, demand is so much greater than supply, lack of quality on the product delivered, weak governance, lack of protection on the employers that makes one resort to certain tactics, albeit some form of gangsterism.

I believe many have gone through similar experiences. One area i'd like to learn is how to introduce a certain level of protection for the employers in the event maid lari. Sekarang ni maid dtg kerja 6 bulan then lari, dah lah kita kena bayar fine, kalau nak replacement kena top up the 4-5000 needed for a new one. Some say simpan gaji maid, some do other stuff.. So kalau ada insights, do share..

So, Sue and I have been without a maid for almost a month. Having to balance work, the kids and domestice chores has in a way affected our movements and activities (have not played futsal since ;) ) But, we're hanging in there...