Employing a Maid in Penang

Whether you like it or not, a maid has become an essential part in many households in Penang. Many double-income families (as well as a few high-single income ones) resort to domestic help. Although the cost of live-in maid has risen substantially in the past decade, it is still affordable in Malaysia compared to Western countries.

Despite the many horror stories that brew up in the newspapers over the hiring of maids (with the victims usually being the maid, the children or the elderly, and cases involving abuse as well as theft, robbery and even murder) all in all, maids have fit well into most families, with many regarding them as an extended member of the family.

Whether or not you need to hire a maid is entirely something you yourself have to decide (and to a certain extend, the Government will decide for you, based on your financial circumstances).[an error occurred while processing this directive]

How to hire a maid in Penang?

The first step is to visit a Main Recruitment Agency. Such agencies (or agent) will be able to find you a live-in domestic helper. Some also provide part-time maid that work by the hour, freeing you from the responsibility of housing and clothing your domestic help. Such maids are useful for general cleaning, but if you need someone to tend to toddlers, children, the infirm and the elderly, you need full-time help.

Although the maid agency is all too happy to get you a maid, it also has a role to play, in assessing that you qualify to hire one. Among other things, you have to demonstrate that you are a married couple, that both of you are working, and that your combined income meets a certain level.

Assuming you pass these hoops, you will then get to review a pool of prospective maids. Usually, they are still waiting in their home country. Based on their biodata, you take your pick. Based on your choice (and based on your financial position and current availability, you have the choice of the originating country of your maid), you are given a breakdown of the costs involved.

At time of writing (August 2012), you can draw maids only from (in alphabetical order) Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam - but don't expect the maid agency to have the maid of your choice country, just because you read it here. If you are agreeable to the cost, you are then provided with a checklist of documents you have to prepare for the Immigration Department. Having furnished these, you wait. The agency will get back to you when everything is in order.

Once you get the good news from the agency, you sit down to review with your agency the plan for bringing the maid in. Usually the agency will make the arrangements to fetch her from the airport and transport her to the agency where you meet her in the flesh for the first time. Ideally the maid would have received training in handling domestic chores, the older ones often having served other families before.

The agency will advise you on how to upkeep your maid. This includes getting her mandatory health screening by FOMEMA, the foreign workers medical screening body.

The office of FOMEMA Penang is at 1-E, 2nd Floor, Penang Street, 10200 Penang. Phone: 04-262 0069. See the location on the map below.

View FOMEMA Penang in a larger map

The Maid Contract

The agency will draw up a maid contract. You can expect that this employ binds you to engage the maid for two whole years. Look out for clauses pertaining to the unforeseen calamities, such as, if you maid run away within the first three to six months, you should be entitled to another maid free of charge. (The statistics show that 1,200 maids fled their employers in Malaysia in 2007, so beware.)

How much does it cost to get a maid?

It all depends on the originating country of your maid, but you can expect of fork out at least RM10,000 upfront, before you see her face to face. It includes local agency fee, country-of-origin agency fee, the maid's first three-month salary, work permit fee, first-year levy, medical insurance, flight and transit accommodation, among others.

What sort of maid should you get?

It should fit your circumstance. If you need someone to look after your infant, then get one with such an experience. Ditto if you need one to tend to an infirm parent, or to do the cooking, or just general cleaning, and so on. Many employers naturally expect the maid to "One Leg Kick All", not unlike the Amahs of the previous generation.

Where to find a Maid Agency?

Finally the answer you have been waiting for. Go to this list of Maid Employment Agencies in Penang for details.