In families where both the spouses are working, an additional person to do the household jobs becomes a necessity.
Taking care of the children at home, attending to the elderly who might not be able to move or do their chores alone, are some of the worries of modern-day couples, as they have deadlines to meet at work and match with the responsibilities at home.
In such a scenario, a domestic help, a driver, or a caretaker becomes an absolute necessity, and the head of the family faces the herculean task of getting a good person as domestic help. More often than not, he ends up taking the shortcut, which is not without risk.
Unscrupulous agents are on the prowl of offering domestic help with lesser documentation at a lower salary. To avoid any problem after employing domestic help, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) has urged all citizens and residents to hire domestic help only from authorised agents operating in the country.
“This instruction is for the smooth recruitment process and to safeguard the interests of both the employer and the employee,” a statement from the ROP has said.
This comes in the wake of a recent incident in which a woman was arrested on charges of fraud and manipulation as she swindled money by offering the services of domestic help.
“We would like to advise all citizens and residents not to be carried away by such online promises until their claims are verified as to its authenticity, and not to transfer any money until after guarantees are obtained.”
Different countries have different sets of formalities to hire domestic help from their country. Most of them have detailed the steps to be followed on their websites.
“One needs to obtain a permit to recruit foreign workers to work in private houses and this applies to the positions of drivers, cooks, nannies and other similar professions. An accredited typing office, Sanad office, would complete the documentation for a fee and this is the safest mode of bringing in domestic help,” Bakhit bin Humaid al Balushi, who runs a recruitment office, said. Oman, on January 27, revised the fees to recruit domestic help with a provision of RO 141 for permits to bring a domestic worker and this fee applies to one to three workers. The employer in this case has to pay RO 241 for any domestic worker from four and above.
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