RIYADH, 19 April 2005 — Sri Lanka has set a minimum wage of SR600 for its nationals going abroad as domestic workers.
More than one million Sri Lankans work abroad, mainly as maids, bringing in over $1 billion in remittances annually. Around 70 percent of the 350,000 workers in the Kingdom are maids.
Sri Lankan Labor Minister Athauda Senevirathne said most Sri Lankan workers in the Middle East have been receiving only SR 400 for more than 18 years . Although Sri Lanka has no authority over the salaries of expatriate workers, Senevirathne said he plans to discuss the issue with labor and foreign affairs ministers of the relevant countries through the Lankan missions abroad. He added that the ministry would not hesitate to take steps to stop workers from leaving the country without prior agreement on the stipulated salary.
The country’s Labor Ministry oversees permits for the workers including their insurance if they fall sick or need to travel back home before the end of their contracts.
“Colombo is keen to implement the new wage effective from June this year in cooperation with the respective employers and recruiting agents here,” Labor Secretary of the Sri Lankan Embassy P.R.L. Wickremesinge told Arab News. He pointed out that current salaries paid to most Sri Lankan workers were insufficient.
According to the new rule, recruiting agents in Sri Lanka will be required to comply with the minimum wage requirement when they enter into agreements with their foreign counterparts. “All foreign employers have to declare the salaries and other benefits beforehand. We urge the agents to select employers based on a higher salary,” he said .”
Reacting to the new salary structure, the Chairman of the Saudi Arabian National Recruiting Committee (SANARCOM) Waleed Al-Swaidan told Arab News that such decisions should be taken in consultation with his organization; otherwise it is difficult to implement such an increase in this part of the world. However, he said SANARCOM has no objection to the proposal so long as the employers agree to an increased wage.
“Sri Lankan maids are not skilled enough to compete in the market since their quality is poorer than that of maids from other countries,” Swaidan said . “I did not see any improvement in the quality of Sri Lankan maids for the past two decades,” he stressed.
He said that his organization offered to set up an orientation center in Colombo in cooperation with the Association of Foreign Employment Licensed Agencies (ALFEA) and the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment to train the maids seeking employment in the Kingdom, but unfortunately nothing was done in this respect, he added.
Referring to Sri Lankan maids, Swaidan said they cannot speak English, nor do they know how to speak the local language. “They hardly know how to handle household appliances such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners and dish-washers.”
