UAE residents: Maids' salaries double but family incomes remain stagnant

Resident-employers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) are claiming that the salaries of foreign household service workers there have doubled in recent years, amid “economic slowdown” and stagnant pay for the locals that hire their help.   On Tuesday, news site Emirates 24|7 said that “residents of the city complain that there have been no hikes in the past few years, but the situation is very different in their homes,” where their maids’ asking rates “are much higher than what is set by their respective consulates.”   Filipino household helpers are supposed to get at least Dh1,400, as new regulations from the Philippines suggest, the hiring outfit Dubai Maids said on its website.   Meanwhile, as their respective embassies suggest, Indian maids must get Dh1,100, while those from Sri Lanka charge Dh825.   Some residents, however, said that these workers “are far more expensive,” with “a hike every year.”   “I have more than doubled my maid’s salary in the last four years. While recession has seen us cut back costs on a lot of things, this is one cost that has escalated year-on-year,” an Indian resident at The Springs area told Emirates 24|7.   Hiring, monthly salary   This resident added that the salary is not the only expense. The very act of getting a maid from an agency, she said, already involved “exorbitant” costs.   On its website, Dubai Maids noted that they have a number of Filipino household helpers-in-training on visit visa, who “can spend a three-day trial to see if both parties (employer and helper) suit each other” for Dh500.   If the arrangement is amenable and the employer wishes to take in the helper, he or she has to apply for the latter’s permanent visa.   “We charge for this service the employee’s airfare and a fee of Dh3,500. It is the responsibility of the employer to arrange a full visa for the maid,” Dubai Maids said.   As stated in the one-year-long new unified contract, or employment agreement, some of the things that the sponsor must provide the maid include:

• airfare to home country at least one every two years, and
• decent living conditions in sponsor’s house (or additional Dh500 for external housing).

  ‘Almost unaffordable’   In a special report in November 2011, Emirates 24|7 said UAE residents find it “almost unaffordable” to hire full-time household helpers because its cost “continues to increase while their income has not.”   The Al Ahliya Agency, for example, charges around Dh8, 150 for getting a maid from the Philippines, the fee intended for processing documents and a one-way air fare to the UAE.   Visa charges, according to an executive at the agency, “is to be paid by the sponsor.” Employers have to pay their Filipino household helpers Dh1,000-Dh1,100.   Emirates 24|7 said many prefer getting maids by word-of-mouth because “one can save on agency commission and other charges.”   The report, however, added that the minimum salaries set by the embassies “is not a norm now” because most maids in New Dubai “get more than what is set by the embassies.”   According to Gaurangi Pradhan, a mother of two, “the housemaid category is the most pampered among the other unskilled laborer categories” because they have the privileges of free accommodation, food, and timely salary.   “The recruitment agencies are often the biggest culprits as they charge sourcing fees from us as well as they take money from the maids,” she said.   Statistics from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) show that more than 13,000 Filipinos were deployed to the UAE under the “Household Service Workers” category last year, making the Arab country the third top destination for these workers. - VVP, GMA News