New guidelines suggested for ayi agencies
- Source: Global Times
- [08:51 March 14 2011]
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Local ayi receive training from a housemaid agency in the city last month. Photo: CFP
By Wang Yi
The Shanghai Administration of Industry and Commerce has released a series of new guidelines in a bid to reduce the number of disputes arising from the domestic services industry.
The guidelines, which the city's some 4,000 housemaid agencies are not legally obligated to adopt, suggest that the employers require their current some 500,000 ayi, or housemaids to present identification before hire and for both parties to keep a record of the hours worked to ensure fair payment of salaries.
The administration also said that agencies should compensate employees justly and encouraged them to train housemaids to reach a certified standard.
"With countless variations of contracts used by agencies, the situation regarding housemaid services in the city is a mess," Chen Xizhu, chair of the Shanghai Household Services Administration, told the Global Times yesterday.
She said that a more uniformed contract within the industry would help prevent frequent conflicts, which stem from agencies constantly changing their ayi to profit off larger agency fees; ayi arbitrarily raising their rates; and agencies failing to pay ayi adequately.
One agency said yesterday that standardizing the practice would be a good start to prevent ayi from taking advantage of the system, but said that the administration's guidelines were too flawed to accept.
"We do need a fair contract that will hold ayi accountable for their jobs," Kong Jing, manager of American-Sino Pediatrics Services, told the Global Times yesterday. "But this one is not up to snuff.
"For example, it doesn't stipulate what should be paid for holidays, so it's not clear whether ayi salaries should be doubled or tripled on such occasions," she said.
But an ayi, who works for an agency in the city, doubted yesterday that any contract would benefit her job.
"The only thing a contract will do is give us less chance to seek better opportunities," the ayi, surnamed Gao, told the Global Times yesterday. "It's more important that I maintain a good relationship with the client than the agency anyway."