THE community of aggrieved employees and workers is likely to swell, as housemaids have begun to groan audibly-and painfully. Threatening to throw away the bucket and sweep, about two million charwomen and housekeepers are complaining that their employers have become unbearably snobbish, aggressive and bullying. According to grievances released to the press by representatives of the housekeeping community, they are abused for the slightest mistake. Foreign housekeepers are lending their voice to their Egyptian colleagues, who also mournfully complain that they suffer from psychological and physical torture. Many female housekeepers claimed that they were the victims of a time-honoured tradition, according to which they were pursued by sexually-agitated pubescent boys in the absence of mums and dads. Highlighting their grievances the house maids confessed that some of their colleagues would unfairly or viciously take advantage of the trust they were given so as to steal money and kill their employers before fleeing. “But such crimes, whether petty or serious, are committed by outsiders,” said Fahima Abbas, who has been a housemaid to a Cairo family for more than 10 years now. Abbas, who has three children, added, “A woman, who works as a housemaid to support her family, can't by any means entertain vicious thoughts about her employer.” The housemaids are also denied health insurance services. They can work unlimited hours. This is one of the reasons why legal experts and social workers maintain that housekeeping in society is a feature of slavery. The former member of the National Council of Human Rights, Ahmed Kamal Abul-Magd, declared that the Ministry of Labour should immediately submit a new bill to regulate and organise the housekeeping profession. Abul-Magd indicated that Egyptian housemaids were denied their human rights. “They are mistreated and are the easy victims of sexual harassment at the work place,” he said. In its latest study, the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) has put the number of housekeeping offices in Egypt at 500,000. The Centre explained that about 75 per cent of these offices were the main supply of housekeepers to families in the Greater Cairo Area. And about 60 per cent of these offices are importers of foreign housemaids. It has also been disclosed that the number of foreign housemaids in society has increased to 1.5 million after expensive lifestyles became the tradition of many Egyptian households. Wealthy families appreciate the qualities of housemaids from Russian or the Philippines more than different nationalities. A Filipino housemaid is given the highest salary: $2000-3000 per month, although her popularity has been challenged recently by Russians, whose number has increased steadily to 100,000 since 2004. The CAPMAS study revealed that the rich Egyptian families would prefer to employ a Russian housemaid aged between18 or 40 years old to be entitled to $2500-3000 per month. Sri Lankan, Indian and African housemaids come at the bottom of the ladder: each nationality receives on average $300-600 per month. Egyptian housekeepers hardly obtain more than $150 per month from their employers. Poor Egyptian families would agree to send their young daughters to clean the house of a middle class employer for around $35. These children are the most vulnerable victims of mistreatment and physical harm by their employer. One woman, named Om Salem, said that after her husband's death, she had to send her eldest daughter, 11, to a family living in Dokki for just $35 a month. “I accepted the offer after my daughter's employer promised her new clothes and three meals,” the widow said. “I was allowed to see her every four months and return to my village in Sharkiya.”
