By Fazeena Saleem
Companies providing housemaids to families at hourly rates have sprung up in Qatar, cashing in on increasing demand from citizens and expatriates.
These maids are hired by households for services ranging from cleaning to cooking and babysitting.
Stringent rules being imposed by several Asian countries for recruitment of housemaids have apparently given a boost to this relatively new business, with many families now shying away from hiring full-time maids.
The Philippine government has raised the minimum wage for Filipina housemaids to $400. A sudden increase in the number of runaway Indonesian maids forced the Indonesian embassy here to stop endorsement of job contracts of housemaids for a few weeks. The decision was revoked later. Complaints about abuse of housemaids are on the rise, and several families are looking for alternative sources to hire domestic workers.
There are several licensed companies in Qatar providing housemaids to families on a short-term basis. They advertise their services mostly through websites and leaflets sent to residential complexes.
They provide domestic helps at hourly rates only in the daytime, for a maximum of eight hours daily.
Earlier, one could book a maid the same day, but following an increase in demand, booking in advance is now required. Some firms ask for booking a day in advance, and there are others that take even three days to supply a housemaid, especially at the weekend.
The maids are brought in mostly from the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal and Kenya.
Most of them do only cleaning jobs. But there are some who work as babysitters, do cooking and laundry and take care of pets. Some even do simple tailoring jobs demanded by the families.
The fees for the services range between QR35 and QR100 per hour.
The majority of maids work for a minimum of four hours straight, or for eight hours if the booking is for the whole day. The employers take care of their transport and make sure that the maids reach and leave the house at the scheduled time.
Normally, their services are available six days a week in two shifts, in the morning and afternoon. The maids get a day off every week, mostly on Fridays.
Demand for domestic workers has increased over the past few months, according to supply agents. They claim to be getting more bookings than before and are facing problems in recruiting new maids.
“The number of bookings we receive has increased, especially during weekends. We face difficulties in getting trained maids; we don’t get many as before,” said the manager of a company, requesting anonymity.
“Some go on vacation and don’t come back; then we have to recruit new ones to fill their vacancy, but we don’t get them as per our requirement,” he added, claiming to have at least 30 maids working for his company.
The majority of those seeking the services of such maids are expatriates and those who cannot keep a full-time maid.
“We have customers from all communities, Arabs and non-Arabs. Most of them hire maids for four hours, some for eight hours, depending on their requirement. We get more calls nowadays, and at times the number of maids we have is not enough,” said an official of another company. Until recently, the firm was able to supply maids to families on the day of the booking, but now it requires advance notice, due to the high demand.
“We need at least one day’s notice because all our maids get engaged with work. Some customers book them on a regular basis. It is impossible to supply a maid at the weekend unless advance booking is done,” the official explained.
Part-time maids face problems similar to what the full-timers face. But the complaints are fewer in number and are mostly sorted out by their employers.
If there are repeated complaints related to a certain family, the employers try to avoid sending maids there.
“We do get complaints, commonly about forcing the maid to overwork. A customer would book the maid for cleaning and ask her to do other work as well. We rarely get major complaints, of abuse or assault,” said a woman supervisor at a company that has been in this business for more than a year.
“The problems don’t get worse because the maid is not dependent on the customer and they are under our sponsorship and responsibility,” she added.
A number of maids who have run away from their sponsors also reportedly offer part-time services to households.
Earlier, they used to advertise on community websites, seeking clients. Now such advertisements have vanished, following a massive crackdown on runaway workers launched by the Ministry of Interior.
However, some runaway maids are still operating on the sly by securing customers through people known to them. They charge much less than the licensed companies and can be hired for QR25 an hour or even less.
“There are no illegal ‘housemaid’ advertisements now and hiring them can be risky, so it’s better to get someone from an agency. They come on time, work is done smoothly and we don’t have to take the burden of bringing them home and dropping them back after work,” said a working mother.
“It’s alright to pay a few more riyals than taking the burden,” she added.
“We call them only once a week for four hours. A maid will come, clean and go. It’s just that we have to call them at least one day in advance,” said another housewife.
Mary arrived in Doha from the Philippines a year ago to work as a maid. She is employed with a housemaid agency. She is paid QR1,200 monthly. Mary also earns some extra money by way of tips at houses where she works.
“Work depends on the houses we go to. Some have less work, some give us the maximum work that can be done within the time limit,” she said.
Asked whether they had been getting more work recently, she said: “Yes, now we have work every day except Fridays. Earlier, sometimes we would be free for some hours.”
According to Mary, she has not faced any problems at houses she has been to for work, except for some instances of being asked to do more work.
Nevertheless, she is not enjoying her job. “I plan to stay here only for another year. When I go home, I will not return,” she said.
Swetha, a maid from Kerala in India, shared a different experience. She came to Doha about 15 months ago to work for a Qatari household. After some time, she was asked to find another job and the sponsor released her for six months, after which her visa would be cancelled and she would have to go home.
Swetha chose to stay with two other runaway maids in a rented room and work as a part-time maid. She finds work through acquaintances, but it’s not easy, she says.
She earns QR1,500 a month by working for an Indian family from morning till evening. Earlier, she was working for a European family for QR12 an hour, six days a week.
“I have to repay a loan back home and want to save some money for my children before I leave, because once I go back I won’t be able to return,” she said.
(Names have been changed.)
