The maid drama: Love them, hate them

The maid dilemma is something most households have to contend with as many Ugandans become career-oriented and need maids to look after their homes. Jackie Nalubwama explores how the plight of the maid can be improved through a union, recruitment agencies and a minimum wage

Meega left her home in Kyaka, about 80km from Fort Portal town in Kabarole district, to work in Namugongo, Wakiso district.

At her workplace, Meega would wake up at 6:00am to prepare breakfast, open and close the gate for her bosses, clean the house, wash clothes and cook meals. She was excited about the new gadgets in the home, especially the TV, which was an entertainer, with Bukedde TV as her favourite station.

Because of Meega’s love for TV, her bosses often complained about her leaving chores undone, to watch programmes.

It also did not help that she was neither clean, nor knew how to clean the house. Eventually, Meega’s employers sent her back to Kyaka, after only two months.

Meega is like most maids from rural backgrounds who move to Kampala in search of a better life. They work in homes with appliances they have not used before, such as electric kettles, microwaves, cookers and blenders.

The challenge of having a rural maid is that they learn on the job – often spoiling appliances, but they are affordable, with some paid as little as sh50,000 per month.

However, those in search of maids from upcountry will continue to launch in the deep because the universal education provided by the Government has enabled more girls, who would previously work as maids, to stay in school.

The commissioner for basic education, Dr. Daniel Nkaada, attests to universal education drying up the source of maids.

“The fact remains that girls are now in school because of Universal Primary Education (UPE),” he says. Batarizale Kule, the commissioner for Government-aided secondary schools, echoes the same idea.

“Universal Secondary Education (USE) has enabled many children to stay in school. Even those who got pregnant can return to school,” says Kule.

Giving the rising numbers of universal education students as evidence of the dwindling number of prospective maids, Kule says in 2007, when USE started, there were approximately 700,000 students in school and now they are 1.3 million.

Maids as a career

Experts predict that in future, the traditional approach of picking school drop-outs from the village to work as housemaids in urban centres will be no more.

Such is the situation in developed countries, where people get maids through employment agencies, which supply trained maids, who meet certain standards.

So far, in Uganda, the number of maids agencies has grown from five in 2006, to 45 today, according to figures from the National Union of Theatrical, Domestic and General Workers’ Union (NUTDOW). Among such agencies is Amani Domestics, based in Kampala.

The proprietor, Olivia Eyaku, has developed a code of ethics for maids, a service contract for clients and an application process.

Credible agencies carry out background checks on maids, arranges for the necessary health examinations, takes them through probation in a test home and orientation at the client’s home.

Eyaku says the health screening enables them to plan how to deploy the maid.

“We don’t segregate against anybody. Even people with HIV are working for us,” she says.

Before deployment, the maids get basic training, focusing on characterbuilding and, where necessary, practical skills, such as child care, laundry management, cooking and cleaning at an extra fee.

The client has to fill an application form and make a commitment to pay the maid a minimum of sh150,000 per month.

The service is structured in such a way that a client can get a maid for any duration of service, ranging from one day to an indefinite period.

Whereas UPE and USE have reduced the number of school drop-outs available to work as maids, Eyaku has noticed that the available few are able to read and write, thanks to free education programmes.

“They can speak and write English. We even have graduates who do not want to walk the streets. Some even study in the evening, pursuing diplomas,” says Eyaku.

To ensure efficiency, a team from the organisation visits the maids at the clients’ homes to appraise them.

On November 30, the organisation held a ceremony, where best performing maids received certificates of recognition.

Professional maids

In effect, the job of housemaid is rapidly becoming professionalized, with more educated workers employed through registered agencies, given hands-on training, employed formally, given a code of conduct and better pay. But this comes at a higher cost to the client.

For instance, maids supplied by Amani Domestics are paid a minimum of sh150,000 monthly, which is about three times higher than the average maid’s pay in Uganda.
 

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Maids attending a seminar at one of the agencies recently

The more experienced ones earn as much as sh400,000 monthly. Similarly, employment agencies, workers’ unions and government departments are increasingly demanding that the employers observe maids’ rights.

In fact, NUTDOW recognises the job of housemaid as a career. The general secretary, Ezra Kanyana, says there is need to raise awareness among employers that maids should enjoy workplace rights, like any other category of employees.

“Awareness of the domestic workers’ rights by their employers enables them to understand the consequences associated with abuse of such rights,” says Kanyana.

He adds that maid agencies register with NUTDOW, which then uses the relationship to access and train maids or advocate for their rights in case of abuse. Rights activists say maids should be paid a decent wage and given conducive working conditions.

Challenges

Despite efforts at professionalising the service, employment agencies face many challenges. “Instilling work ethics into a domestic worker is hard,” says Eyaku.

The other challenge is immature maids. “Some girls have messed me up. Even when they are adults, they still want to behave like teenagers,” she says.

“It will take some time before the service is fully professionalised.”

Maids in the UK

In Britain, like in many developed countries, maids are got from recruitment agencies, which offer an array of qualities that clients need. Some of the services customers ask for include; nanny for the children, house-keeper for the chores and chef for the kitchen.

Under the agency arrangement, domestic workers are paid per hour. Since the UK has a minimum wage of £6.50 (sh26,000) per hour, a maid is guaranteed a decent pay, unlike in Uganda, where the wage depends on negotiations between the boss and employee.

Government not decided on minimum

The gender, labour and social development ministry’s permanent secretary, Pius Bigirimana, says the Government has not yet decided whether to set a minimum wage. He says Government will set up a board to discuss whether or not Uganda needs a minimum wage.

“We need to consider different professions and regions. Someone from Kalangala district can’t have the same minimum wage as the one living in Kampala,” he says.

Bigirimana adds that next month, the Government will have a paper on the minimum wage, but for now, bosses have to negotiate the wage with their maids. Ezra Kanyana, the general secretary of the National Union of Theatrical, Domestic and General Workers’ Union, argues that a minimum wage is necessary, but not enough.

“Employers should not just look at the cash payment alone. They should ensure their employees sleep well, eat well, get medical care, don’t work long hours and get at least one day of rest during the week,” he says.

He adds: “Employers should know that a good pay to their employees is not only good for the worker, but to themselves.”

Reactions about horror maid who tortured baby

trueReferring to the awful video of the monster maid who battered a toddler, Olivia Eyaku, the proprietor of Amani Domestics, based in Bunga, a Kampala suburb, says some maids do bad things because they have baggage from their past.

“With any little trigger, they will offload it. Most of the time, they don’t have anybody to talk to since they work in enclosed homes, with little interaction with neighbours. So, they let it out on children,” she says.

Eyaku says maids, too, need a break from work. He advises bosses not to confine their maids.

NOTU chairman general Usher Owere, says they help abused maids get redress, but they did not come out to support Jolly Tumuhiirwe, who tortured a child.

“We help workers get redress, but this time, it was different. As a worker, you should make your workplace safe, but she tortured the child.”

However, he added, there is need to look at the relationship between the mother and maid and the father and maid.

Similarly, the National Union of Theatrical, Domestic and General Workers’ Union (NUTDOW) condemned the act.

The general secretary, Ezra Kanyana, says there was probably an underlying issue that triggered Tumuhiirwe to torture the baby.

“Her conduct was criminal. However, there seems to be an underlying problem.”

In a group discussion at NUTDOW offices in Ntinda, while responding to a question, ‘What could have compelled Tumuhiirwe to conduct herself that way?’, participants argued that she could have had her own rights abused for by her employer.

“She behaved like mistreated workers in a factory who go on strike and burn tyres in the middle of the road or burn houses,” he says.

In Tumuhiirwe’s mind, Kanyana says, she was probably beating the boss.

He says Tumuhiirwe’s actions injure the union’s moral authority to adequately defend her, but if it is proven that her rights were abused by her employers, then NUTDOW will drag the family to court.

“We plan to speak to her. We have also talked to neighbours and relatives to establish whether there were complaints of abuse of her rights by her employer.”

A maid's testimony

Sarah Aboth says only nice things about her job of two months. It’s her first job as a maid. “[I like] Many things. I am paid on time, by the 25th day of the month, I get my salary. I have one day-off on Sunday.

When I get a problem, I can go and sort it out,” says Aboth, who holds a diploma in hotel management.

Aboth is a mother of three, who has every reason to work hard.

“On my days off, I visit my friends and relatives or even sleep all day. I earn sh300,000 monthly. I wouldn’t want anything to change about my job. I am contented so far. The children are lovely…,” she goes on.

Asked about other maids’ experiences, she says: “I hear that most female bosses are not friendly. They think they can treat you in any way they want.”

On the monster maid saga, Aboth says: “It was so horrible. I don’t know…it was bad. I am okay with looking after children because I, too, have children. I visit them in Nsambya, a city suburb, on my days off.”

The rest of the week, her husband takes care of the children. What is for Christmas? “I will be off for one week,” she says.