The Ministry of Human Resources has confirmed now the signing date for the Memorandum of Understanding between Malaysia and Indonesia on the employment and protection of Indonesian Domestic Workers will be held on April 1.
Having been delayed since February the much anticipated MOU will be welcome progress as the delay has already caused a backlog in the labour force in both the domestic area and plantation sector. The new agreement was finanlised after multiple revisions were made when the Indonesian counterpart was not completely convinced with the first draft of the agreement. What is known is that additional protection and support mechanisms were required to be included in domestic workers’ contracts before they were permitted to work in Malaysia.
As for wages, M Saravanan MOHR Minister has reiterated that the minimum wage implementation scheduled to take effect from April will not apply to foreign worker agreements. Details of salary packages and contract period will only be revealed after April 1.
