Pay rise for housemaids next year

FOREIGN housemaids are to receive a pay increase of ten per cent this year and a further ten per cent increase next year but will have more restrictions when it comes to terms of employment, Interior Minister Christos Patsalides said yesterday.

The proposal will be given to the cabinet next week for approval, he said.

As well as the welcome pay rises, the proposal also contains tougher conditions for the women who often abscond from their employers and work illegally.

Patsalides said that under the proposal the women would only be allowed to change employer twice in four years, and must work a full year first before being released to a second, unless the case is exceptional.

He said that up to now the policy had been to prevent the exploitation of housemaids but he said this reached the point where the exploitation was reversed.

The new regulations aim to crack down on housemaids who make false allegations against their Cypriot employer so as to cancel their contract. They then switch employers or else take on a number of odd jobs, illegally because it’s more lucrative for them than a monthly live-in salary.

Typically a live-in housemaid earns around £150 a month with room and board but are often forced to work 12-16 hours a day and weekends so understandably they prefer to freelance, which can bring in £3.00 an hour, or £600 a month, based on an eight-hour six-day week.

However many of the full-time employers say they are being left high and dry by absconding housemaids after paying their expenses to come into the country.

There are currently some 22,000 housemaids in Cyprus that have a work permit, while 2006 saw a drop in the number of applications from more than 11,500 during the two previous years, to less than one thousand.
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