Employer to Face Suit over Unpaid Salary

DT: An employer will be brought to court if he fails to pay BD6000 worth of unpaid salary to his housemaid before the extended grace period that expires today.

DT was informed previously by the Indonesian Embassy officials that a housemaid named “Camellia” is currently seeking shelter at the Embassy, because she was not paid by her employer for several years.

Camellia’s case surfaced in 2009 when her relatives in Indonesia inquired at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs about her, as they have not heard or not received any remittance from her for some time.

Following which, the relatives managed to track down Camellia’s sponsor and had them both report at the former Indonesian consulate (now Embassy).

Based on Camellia complaint that she was not being paid, the consulate made the employer sign an agreement saying that he would pay all her unpaid salary and will repatriate her by February 2010.

However, the employer neither repatriated Camellia nor paid her salary, prompting her to run away and seek shelter at the Indonesian Embassy.

The Ministry of Labour has ordered the employer to pay all the unpaid salary within 12 days which ended yesterday, July 25, said Indonesian Embassy First Secretary Mohammed Rifqi.

"The employer had not paid the salary in our office as expected so we gave him an extension of one day which will expire tomorrow (July 26) when our embassy closes. Should the employer fail to pay, he shall be brought to court.”

The delay in payment of house-maids’ salaries is a very common issue regularly handled by the Indonesian Embassy. The non-payment goes on for several months or even years at a time because of the good treatment received by the housemaids which builds their trust on their employers.