(by Courtney Trenwith)

Saudi households will be able to hire maids on an hourly basis for the first time in what the kingdom says will alleviate numerous problems associated with live-in maids.

A foreign worker recruitment official, Saad Baddah, said the new service, to be called Raha, would stop domestic workers from running away from homes, reduce the waiting time to hire a maid, minimise labour export countries’ ability to impose “unfair conditions” on recruiting domestic workers and eliminate middlemen.

The system would be overseen by a national committee, which did not negotiate with labour exporting countries, he said.The rights of domestic workers has been a long running issue in Saudi Arabia, as well as other GCC countries.

The kingdom has temporarily banned the hiring of maids from certain countries at various times due to disputes over their treatment, while labour exporting countries have issued their own bans on citizens taking up jobs in Saudi Arabia.

Presently, Ethiopian maids are unable to be recruited to Saudi Arabia while investigations into several alleged child murders are ongoing.

While Indonesia, the Philippines and Ethiopia have long been source countries for Saudi domestic workers, the government recently announced it would expand recruitment of domestic workers, including drivers, to also include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Laos and India.

Baddah did not reveal which nationalities would be used under the hourly scheme, what the hourly rate would be or when it would come into effect.

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Source:  ArabianBusiness.com (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) – August 15, 2013, titled “Saudi to allow maids to be hired by the hour”.