KUALA LUMPUR: The minimum household income required to employ domestic workers is RM7,000, says Indonesia's Ambassador to Malaysia.

       Hermono said that if employers needed two domestic workers, their household income should be double of RM7,000.

       The Malaysia-Indonesia memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the Employment and Protection of Indonesian Domestic Workers in Malaysia did not disclose this figure.

       However, the MOU entrusted that determination to Indonesia’s Mission in Malaysia, a news portal reported.

       In a leaked MOU document, Malaysiakini reported that Indonesian domestic workers’ wages were to be no less than RM1,500 and continued non-payment of wages entitled workers to terminate their contracts.

       It said the MOU also streamlined tasks usually given to a single worker under three job titles - namely housekeeper and family cook, child caregiver and elderly person caregiver.

       Hermono said one person cannot be expected to do all that work with long hours without a minimum rest period and no annual holiday.

       “During the negotiations, we asked for all the common abuse and forced labour elements faced by Indonesian domestic workers to be addressed in the MOU.

       “And the minimum household income plays a big role in the payment of wages because if the employers don’t earn enough, they cannot afford to pay.

       “This is how domestic workers come to face forced labour with unpaid wages,” he told Malaysiakini, adding that was why the embassy chose to be the one to set the minimum bracket.

       Hermono said the RM7,000 minimum household income requirement had been in effect for the past three years.

       “This amount is nothing new. All applications that came through the embassy over the past three years needed to fulfil this and other criteria,” he was quoted as saying.

       He also said government-registered agencies in both Malaysia and Indonesia that recruit and place domestic workers were required to register within the one channel system’s (OCS) online portal.

       He said the registration process also required agencies to sign a mandatory undertaking, which stipulated the maximum fee chargeable to employers.

       “If agencies charged more than RM15,000 per domestic worker, the employer can call and inform the embassy and the agency will be blacklisted from the OCS,” he said.

       Hermono added the OCS was the only system which employers would be able to employ Indonesian domestic workers.