We have read that preparations are in progress for the recruitment of domestic workers from Vietnam instead of from Indonesia. As we are well aware, Indonesian workers have had many problems here in the Kingdom, not the least of which has been the high number of Indonesian maids running away from their employers. The monthly wage for Vietnamese workers, we hear, will be SR500.
The Vietnamese are a hardworking and energetic people. The long wars they fought against the French and then the Americans taught them discipline and patience. The most dangerous thing, however, about this new recruitment policy is that the low wages will only create more problems.
Perhaps to a poor Vietnamese, SR500 sounds like a good wage and no doubt it would be in a country where all wages were low and living conditions less than most of us would expect. Once the Vietnamese worker arrives in Saudi Arabia and begins to experience life here, he or she will find that SR500 a month is a very modest amount indeed. So small a salary will make them feel they have been done a great injustice and that they are being exploited. Problem after problem then begins to surface and no doubt, many workers will soon run away from their employers. Others will be ready to take them on and pay them more — which of course is one reason foreign workers so often leave their original employers.
We have had a long experience with the problems caused by low wages and yet we insist on making the same mistake over and over. The case of street cleaners and garbage collectors is the best example. The companies employing them pay them such low salaries that many have to resort to begging in order to survive. There are thousands of other workers, doing almost every kind of job, both illegal and dangerous, with their sponsors knowing nothing.
It is time the Ministry of Labor and the National Society for Human Rights introduce a minimum wage of at least SR1,000 a month for domestic workers with food provided free. In my opinion, SR1,000 is a reasonable figure and would encourage workers to stay. It would help build confidence and trust in both the employer and worker, thus eliminating feelings of inferiority or superiority. Domestic helpers who receive SR1,000 and more would most likely be treated well by their employers who would appreciate their work.
Bringing in cheap labor doesn’t mean we have won anything because the moment the individuals arrive here and discover the reality of life, they turn to illegal means to provide what they have been denied. Realizing the existence of a problem and avoiding it is always preferable to having to solve it.
