From housemaids to housekeepers
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Aldoris, the choon-paan karaya, came speeding down the road in his tuk-tuk but braked to a halt outside our gate when he spotted the trio.“Mokada mechchara haddisiyen (Why are you in such a hurry),” asked Kussi Amma Sera.
“Mata mage duwage iskoleta yanna thiyenawa, paan wikunuwata passé (I need to go to my daughter’s school after I sell the bread),” he said.
“Den ithin oyage kaema-wala mila aduwenna ethi ne (So now your prices of food items would have come down),” noted Serapina.
“Aiyo Miss, indana saha gas mila aduwunata ape anith viyadam wedu wela ne (Aiyo Miss even though fuel and gas prices have come down, other overheads have increased),” he said.
“Maeka thama saamaniyayen sidda wenne. Indana saha gas mila wedi wuna gaman-ma, ahara wala mila ihala yanawa. Eth indana mila adu wunama, mokaka hari kiyala mila wenas karranne nae (This is usually what happens. When fuel and gas prices go up, instantly food prices go up. But when fuel comes down, you give excuses),” said Mabel Rasthiyadu. In response, Aldoris mumbled incoherently.
At this point, the home phone rang. It was Cardboard Sando, the muscle man from the nearby petti-kade, whom I hadn’t spoken to for a while.
“Hello…hello,” I said, greeting him.
“Fine… fine. I read some interesting news about migrant workers,” he said. Sando has some relatives working in West Asia and often discusses this subject with me.
“About what?” I asked. “Well it seems the authorities want to transform domestic workers to housekeepers after they get proper training here and receive such certification,” he said.
“So that’s good news,” I said.
“Yes it is, it helps their dignity and improves their wage levels,” he said.
“The government needs to be doing more for domestic workers, after all they are akin to the breadwinners of the government, earning in dollars and helping the government meet its import costs’ obligations,” I said.
“For years these women have been used as virtual slaves in foreign countries without proper rights, often struggling with issues like long working hours, not enough sleep, alleged sexual harassment and non-payment of wages on due dates, etc.,” he said.
A sizable portion of the demand and implementation of rights for domestic workers comes from civil society groups working in the field of migrant workers. The decision to transform domestic workers to be designated as housekeepers is also partly due to the efforts of these groups in seeking rights and better working conditions for Sri Lankan migrant workers.
It has been reported that the designation of ‘housekeepers’ and endorsement would only happen when these West Asia-bound workers follow an advanced training programme conducted by the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) which includes training in child caring and babysitting, elderly care and patient and recovery care.
Such training has become necessary after a teenage Sri Lankan domestic worker in Saudi Arabia in January 2013 was beheaded over the death of a baby in her care in the year 2005, a case that was widely condemned by civil society rights groups. The maid, who was just 17 years old, having travelled to Saudi with fake papers, had vigorously denied killing the four-month-old boy by choking.
For the record, the Government relies a lot on the remittances of migrant workers which have seen reduced flows in the past two years but which are now improving. In recent times, migrant workers have been remitting money through unofficial banking channels (known as ‘undiyal’ or ‘hawala’) and official banking flows have suffered as a result.
However, recent gains in the rupee versus the US dollar have led to improved remittances through official channels. Accordingly, remittances in January-March 2023 were $1.4 billion, an 80 per cent increase from $782.5 million in the same 2022 period. This is largely due to the dollar rate at money dealers (and in the black market) being lower than the official rates quoted by banks. Remittances in 2022 were $3,789.5 million, down sharply from $5,491.5 million in 2021. The pickup in the first two months this year is an indication that remittances would be over $4-5 billion this year, however still lower than the record $7 billion annually received in the period before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Of the more than 1.1 million Sri Lankans who have left the country in 2022, more than 310,000 were for foreign employment, according to official figures.
Under new rules governing training for domestic workers, these individuals would be certified as housekeepers under an advanced training programme by the SLBFE. Salaries would also increase for those receiving such certification.
In recent times, the Government has been involved in providing a host of concessions to migrant workers like increased duty free allowances and facilities to purchase electric cars with their earnings.
A negative decision though is that of not permitting troubled workers, who are not registered with the SLBFE, to stay in safe houses operated by Sri Lankan missions overseas. Currently, only registered workers are permitted to access these safe houses. Thousands of workers are unregistered for many reasons and don’t pay the compulsory fee to the SLBFE prior to departure (this is at the time the training programme is followed). Unlike registered workers who have problems overseas and run away from their workplace and seek shelter in the embassy, unregistered workers don’t have this privilege. Registered workers are also part of an insurance scheme that entitles them (in most cases) to a free ticket to return home when leaving a troubled workplace. Unregistered workers are not part of this scheme and are helpless when in trouble.
Often it’s the sub-agents, promoting jobs in West Asia, who convince women that following the compulsory training programmes of the SLBFE is not required. They are largely responsible for the plight of a worker overseas. The Government needs to consider these issues on humanitarian grounds and save unregistered workers who fall into difficulty.
Civil society groups like Community Development Services (CDS) and Solidarity Centre, Sri Lanka, have been working for decades in this field and creating awareness about the rights of migrant workers.
One of the key challenges in this sector is the need for a standard labour contract, going through a registered job agent and proper pre-departure training programmes.
“It also must be noted that as duty bearers of the labour migration discourse at the state and non-state level, we have a responsibility to promote the rights and safeguard the welfare, well-being and interest of the low skilled, low waged migrant workers who have made an enormous contribution to our national economy by way of labour remittance receipts. They certainly deserve proper guidelines, knowledge and training in their orientations prior to departure,” said the CDS in a recent proposal to the SLBFE.
Just as I shut down my computer, having completed this week’s column, Kussi Amma Sera walked into the room with a mug of steaming hot coffee, not the usual tea, saying: “Mama ada kopi ekak genawa (I brought you coffee today).”
I nodded my thanks and reflected on the plights of hundreds of troubled Sri Lankan workers who are in safe houses in embassy premises and the need to bring them back home safely.
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