Fatima Muhammad

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH — A social media campaign that asks Saudi households to reduce their dependence on maids by not employing them full-time is gaining popularity. The campaign calls for replacing full-time maids with part-time ones.



Manal Al-Sharif, a Saudi housewife and journalist who began the campaign, said she believes part-time maids are a perfect solution to overcome all issues related to domestic helpers in the kingdom.



According to Al-Sharif, maids are taking advantage of the amnesty period granted to foreigners to correct their legal status and the holy month of Ramadan by asking for unreasonably high wages.



“Despite the amnesty, maids are not willing to transfer their sponsorship because they know their monthly salaries will immediately drop from SR2,500 to SR1,500. A family that hires two maids on a salary of SR2,000 each with an additional SR1,000 as a miscellaneous expense allowance, ends up wasting SR72,000 a year on maids,” said Al-Sharif. However, if families start employing maids on a part-time basis, Al-Sharif believes they can save a considerable amount of money. “Apart from the financial benefits, why would I allow maids to control me? And why allow them to invade my privacy,” she asked while adding that maids will benefit from working part-time in the form of additional free time to themselves.



Al-Sharif said laziness was the reason why there is such a large dependence on maids and suggested better time and task management skills can help families break their dependency on domestic helpers.