'I cleaned condo, groomed 30 cats daily without wages for years'

 

For Indonesian domestic worker Saifannur (not her real name), Hari Raya night was the highlight of her first two years of her employment at the home of a well-heeled Malaysian couple.

This was when she was allowed to spend an hour on the phone with her daughter and parents. But the conversation always ended with the same lie – that she would send money home.

Saifannur claimed that the couple, both of whom have the title “Dato”, had allegedly confiscated her phone and only permitted Saifannur to communicate with her family once a year, during Hari Raya.

In 2016, when the single mother, who is now 31, left Aceh in search of greener pastures in Malaysia, her daughter, who was three then, was left in her parents' care.

Speaking to Malaysiakini in a Zoom interview, Saifannur, who has since returned to Indonesia after escaping, said her daily chores involved grooming 30 Persian cats and ensuring the upkeep of the four-bedroom luxury condominium in Kuala Lumpur.

On April 18 this year, nine months after she escaped, Saifannur received less than half of the wages owed to her for the four years and six months she had allegedly worked for the couple.

Denied phone call

A spokesperson for the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur confirmed that following a prolonged mediation, Saifannur received only RM20,000 of the RM50,500 owed to her.

Elaborating on her ordeal, Saifannur claimed she was not allowed to make the single call home after 2018 and her alleged employers, who have denied that she worked in their house, brushed off her repeated requests to speak to her daughter.

“When I asked, they would tell me ‘nanti-nanti’ (later).

“My phone was taken away the day I arrived as they (her alleged employers) said I was not allowed access to a phone. That ended my freedom to communicate with my child,” she lamented, recalling how painful it felt not to hear her daughter calling her “mama”.

Although left alone during the day and having access to the ground floor unit's balcony, Saifannur said it was difficult to escape due to the condominium's security features and secluded location.

Furthermore, she did not have any personal documentation or a valid visa.

In December 2016, when her agent, known only as Siva, introduced her to her employers, he promised to return her passport with a valid work visa but this never happened.

According to Saifannur, her alleged employers were involved in a charity for poor Muslim women. A check by Malaysiakini found that the wife holds a prominent position in a high-profile charity organisation.

Saifannur at the Indonesia Embassy in Kuala Lumpur

‘She did not work for us'

Saifannur said she had requested to be sent home since 2018 and her alleged employers assured her that they would do so.

“They promised to send me back and claimed they were holding my pay so that I would have a lot of money when I returned. Eventually, they promised to send me back in January 2021, ” she said.

However, Saifannur was later told that she could not return because of the movement control order (MCO) to curb the spread of Covid-19.

“The Dato told me not to be afraid. He said I could trust him as he was not a bad person. He said the other ‘bibik’ (domestic worker) before me had also trusted him,” she claimed.

Saifannur claimed that when she asked him again last July, he slapped her and this prompted her to escape and seek shelter at the Indonesian embassy.

Her chance came when the security guard left the access gate to the condominium open. Taking nothing with her, Saifannur flagged a taxi and the driver offered to take her to the nearest police station for free.

At the police station, upon confirming that Saifannur only wanted to return home, police personnel gave her RM20 to take a Grab car to the embassy.

An embassy spokesperson said when contacted, the alleged employers' initial response was to deny knowledge of Saifannur as there was no proof of her employment with them.

He said the couple maintained this position even during a meeting with representatives from the Labour Department.

RM20,000 paid as 'consolation'

In a sudden turn of events during the mediation, the spokesperson said the couple confessed to knowing Saifannur but claimed they had only provided her shelter as an undocumented migrant until she could return home.

“The couple said Saifannur was treated like a family member, was never asked to do heavy work and was provided with all the necessities.

“The couple eventually agreed to give Saifannur a token sum of RM20,000 as ‘saguhati’ (consolation) so that she could return home,” he added.

He claimed that the couple had requested for the amount to be reduced to RM17,000 but the embassy objected.

The embassy had calculated Saifannur's outstanding wages to be RM50,500 based on her understanding of the agreement she had with her alleged employers.

As for their claim of providing shelter, the spokesperson questioned the rationale for needing to provide refuge for more than four years when the process to obtain a Travel Document in Lieu of a Passport took only five days.

When contacted by Malaysiakini, Saifannur's alleged employers declined to comment beyond saying that the matter had been settled. Malaysiakini is withholding their names pending further responses on the case.

In a separate case in January, Malaysiakini reported that a domestic worker who worked for a “Tan Sri” for 12 years without wages had fled to the embassy and through mediations received a little over RM100,000 in back wages.

However, action has yet to be taken against the “Tan Sri” by the relevant authorities. - Mkini