Hiring of domestic help now easier

Ministry will open 24 Tadbeer centres for domestic workers’ recruitment in the country

The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation will open up soon 24 exclusive centres across the country to help families recruit domestic workers at fixed rates, Gulf News has learnt.

Under the new system of the Ministry, a family will be able to recruit a housemaid between at cost of Dh8,000 to Dh15,000 as per the nationality of the domestic help and their experience. This will include all residency and health expenses, according to a senior official.

The family will have to pay a monthly salary of Dh1,000 to Dh1,500 – depending on the housemaid’s nationality and experience.

In the first phase the ministry will open up nine centres and 15 centres in the second phase across the country.

Four packages

The service centres under the supervision of the ministry called, Tadbeer, will provide special services to families and employers who wish to recruit housemaids and run the business of facilitating domestic helps to families in the country. Tadbeer will function with the partnership of the private sector and work under the supervision of the ministry. The centres will provide services to families and employers through four defined packages.

The first package will allow the recruitment of domestic helps from outside the country through the centre as per the recruitment procedures; second will give option to domestic helps who are registered at the centre of temporary services and after finishing the period agreed upon, the worker can be transferred to work as a domestic worker. The third package doesn’t allow the worker to transfer; while the fourth package provides flexible work options to the helpers, who are registered with the centre as per the requirement of the employer. Under the system the domestic help will remain under the sponsorship of the centre for six months, then will be transferred to the sponsor who wishes to recruit them. Domestic helps will get a weekly off and will be not allowed to sleep outside the home.

If the domestic helps want the pick-up and drop-off services, the centre will provide them against Dh55 weekly.

Domestic helps will also be hired on the hourly basis with the minimum of four hours at Dh180, one hour Dh45, weekly Dh1,260 and monthly Dh4,465. More details of four packages are under study.