Efforts are on for a unified employment contract for house workers in the GCC countries to prevent manipulation in recruitment costs, local Arabic daily Arrayah has reported.
Ali Hamad Afifah, a team member at the recruitment office of labour in Qatar Chamber, said that the establishment of a Gulf union in this regard, will result in reduction of the costs of recruitment and salaries of house workers.
He noted that a unified Gulf employment contract will prevent manipulation in wages.
Afifah explained that a meeting was held in Saudi Arabia to discuss this issue during which a recommendation to form “the Gulf work team” was proposed. With members from all the recruitment offices in the GCC, the team can decide on a unified employment contract in the Gulf.
Afifah stated that the main culprits for the rise in wages, are the labour exporting companies and not the recruitment offices in the GCC countries.
He confirmed that these companies control the wages and impose them on the recruitment offices in the Gulf. Another reason is the high demand, compared with the low supply.
He pointed out that the cost of recruitment of a Sri Lankan housemaid is QR13,000, that of an Indonesian is QR16,000 and a Filipino QR12,000 and the prices in Qatar are the lowest in the GCC region.
Afifah attributed less number of visas granted by Qatar authorities as the main reason for the high cost of recruitment of the Indonesian housemaids.
He also appealed to the authorities to increase the number of visas for the Indonesian housemaids to keep pace with the high demand, the daily added.
