Abu Dhabi

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation yesterday opened the first 11 Tadbeer centres in different emirates of the country to facilitate recruitment of housemaids.

These centres will provide domestic workers services to families and businesses under the ministry’s four packages at reduced set rates, the ministry said.

Out of 24 planned Tadbeer centres, 11 which were opened yesterday include two centres in Abu Dhabi, four in Dubai, one in Sharjah, three in Ajman and one centre in Fujairah.

The ministry said it will start operating another 14 centres in the country by end of the year.

The ministry said these centres will help make the hiring process of maids easier and cheaper. For example, Filipinos can be hired from the centre for Dh12,000 instead of Dh20,000 in the market.

Ensuring rights

Nasser Bin Thani Al Hameli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation, opened one of these centres in Ajman and said that these Tadbeer centres will provide quality services to the people under the rules and standards of the ministry for hiring maids.

Saif Ahmad Al Suwaidi, under-secretary of human resources affairs at MoHRE, said, the ministry spent much efforts to study documents of housemaids’s hiring in previous years aiming to help ensure better rights to both — employer and employee and guarantee better privileges to them in the direction of developing cooperation with the domestic helps sending countries.

Best practices are to be implemented in recruiting housemaids through these centres and to provide quality services to the families, citizens and residents of the country, and of course, at reduced rates, he said.

He said these centres are being opened after the ministry received excessive complaints of negative practices by agencies providing domestic help.

The decision to open the centres came after the increased charges of maids hiring and violations of hiring rules by the agencies, like the contracts and agreements, they signed with families and businesses, not providing maids suitable work environment during the period between their arrival and recruitment. Al Suwaidi said in light of these negative practices, the Ministry stepped up to find a strategic alternative to these agencies, and that’s how Tadbeer centres have been developed to provide all the services related to the domestic workers in a protected manner as these centres will work under the supervision of the ministry.

Al Suwaidi said the ministry has been able to access new markets for the recruitment of domestic workers to diversify options for employers and families.

“The ministry has also signed memorandum of understanding [MoUs] with a number of Asian countries including India, Sri Lanka and Kenya, as part of the ministry’s plan to enhance cooperation with the labour-sending countries. This also contributes to the control and supervision of recruitment of these workers,” said Al Suwaidi. About the cost of bringing Filipino domestic workers, he said, “It has reduced from Dh20,000 to Dh12,000, and this is in line with the expectations of employers and families in the country.

“The ministry conducted a study to assess the views and expectations regarding the prices and the cost of maids’ hiring where the majority of people who were surveyed expressed that the prices which suit them range from Dh8,000 to Dh10,000,” Al Suwaidi said.

The ministry also asserted that it will stop renewing the licences of agencies which fail to abide by the maids’ hiring standards and rules as per the Tadbeer centres.

Four packages

The centres will provide services to families and employers through four defined packages, which will be offered at set prices.

FIRST: In the first package, a maid who is registered at the centre and has spent six months, can be transferred to the family or businesses, where transfer of workers will cost up to Dh8,000 for Filipinos, Indonesians, Sri Lankans; whereas Bangladeshis can be hired at Dh4,500, Ethiopians, Kenyans and Ugandans in Dh3,500; while the transfer charges for Indian and Nepalese workers will be Dh6,000.

However the monthly cost for keeping a maid as per the first package include Dh2,500 for Filipinos, Indonesians, Dh2,200 for Sri Lankans, Dh2,250 for Bangladeshis, Kenyans, Nepalese and Indians, while for Ethiopians and Ugandans, it will be Dh2,300.

SECOND: Similar to first but it doesn’t allow transfer of domestic helps working with the families and businesses after spending six months with the centre.

In this category, monthly cost for Filipinos and Indonesians will be Dh2,500; Dh2,300 for Sri Lankans, Ethiopians, and Ugandans, while Dh2,250 for workers from Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal and India.

THIRD: In this category a domestic help is allowed to work on a flexible hourly, weekly or monthly basis as per the requirement of families and businesses. These costs are for all nationalities.

- 4 Hours: Dh120.

- 8 Hours: Dh200.

- 7 Days: Dh1,120.

- 30 days: Dh3,500.