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Fitting in with relentless urban life
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-01-18 08:37
Xiao Liu has been busy trying to find a replacement domestic helper to take
care of her parents after their permanent one announced she will not be
returning after the Spring Festival holidays.
A domestic helper demonstrates her baby-care
skills at a job fair held last year in Chendu, Sichuan Province. She is
one of 40 housemaid hopefuls who graduated from a two-month skill-training
programme conducted by the city government.
[newsphoto] |
"I have yet to find a suitable one. It's hard. If I cannot find one before
the Spring Festival, I will have to attend to my parents myself," said Liu.
Her octogenarian parents live alone in Beijing's Chaoyang District and depend
on a live-in domestic helper to take care of them.
In the run up to the all important Spring Festival, or Chinese Lunar New
Year, tens of thousands of housemaids are heading for their hometown for family
reunions, creating a huge gap in the domestic service market.
"We need about 7,000 more maids during the Spring Festival period," Wang
Zhiqiang, manager of Zhuyou Home Service Company, told China Daily.
Wang's company is one of the largest providers of domestic staff in Beijing.
However, the shortage is by no means a festival phenomenon - it is happening
increasingly every day. It just takes on a greater urgency during the Spring
Festival - a time when most Chinese will try and be with their family.
Zhang Jianji, vice-chairman of the China Home Service Association (CHSA),
said the shortfall in Beijing's domestic staff market stands at between 80,000
to 100,000 ordinarily.
And the problem is no better in other big cities.
Grim work
"Many of my fellow villagers working as maids here will go home for Spring
Festival, but I will stay," said Zhao Chunying in her 30s.
"I will work until May and then go home to reap the wheat. Then I will not
come back. I'm fed up with working as a maid," she said.
With high hopes, Zhao arrived in the capital in 2000 from a small village in
Henan Province. Knowing nothing except farming, she got her first job as a
live-in housemaid taking care of an elderly woman who had suffered a stroke, on
a salary of 300 yuan (US$36) a month.
To earn as much as possible, Zhao always opts to work with the old and infirm
which pays more.
"Now I can get 800 yuan (US$96) per month. But the work is really hard."
"I have to do everything for them. Cooking, feeding, bathing, cleaning,
almost everything."
And the work with her latest employer, a woman paralyzed and incontinent, has
been relentless.
After finishing the daily grind, nights were invariably disturbed by her
charge.
Two months have proven all she can take. "I'm making money almost at the cost
of my life," said Zhao, close to tears.
She plans to find another job to take her up until May, when she will leave
Beijing for good. "I do not want to be a maid anymore and I miss my family,"
said Zhao.
For the last 10 years her husband has been working for an interior decorating
company in Guangzhou and their teenage son is away at boarding school. Since she
has been working in Beijing, the couple have not seen each other for five years.
In a tale repeated over and over in the country, the raison d'etre of Zhao
and her husband - to see their offspring get a good education - was evident.
"My boy is a top 10 student at school. His teacher said he could be admitted
to one of the best universities in China. Going to university is very expensive
and we want to save enough money for him," she said.
But Zhao will not be staying in Henan. She plans to go south to Guangzhou to
try her luck.
"Many of my country folk earn 800 to 900 yuan a month working in a toy
company there. Although I can earn almost the same money here as a housemaid,
it's quite different.
"Maids have no freedom. You are awaiting orders all the time. And the working
atmosphere is very depressing. You do not have your own life, no friends and no
one to talk to. You always feel lonely. But being a worker in a factory, you are
free when the work is done and you have a lot of colleagues around you," said
Zhao.
Low pay, poor conditions
Despite the shortage of domestic staff to meet demand, thousands of those who
have tried it are quitting. Low pay, excessive workload, unappreciated by the
society and no job security, are among the most common reasons cited.
"Most people think a maid's work is very easy, and needs no special skill or
knowledge so they are only offered a low salary," said Wang Zhiqiang.
In Beijing, their average salary is about 700 yuan (US$84) per month. Some
experienced maids can earn about 1,000 yuan (US$120) while those with no
experience or poorly educated can only get 500 yuan (US$60), according to the
CHSA.
Things are worse in South China's Guangdong Province, where the average
monthly salary is between 400 to 600 yuan (US$48 to US$72) and the lowest just
300 yuan (US$36), according to a report by the South Metropolis News. The fact
that the minimum monthly income set by the Guangdong provincial government for
local workers is 510 yuan (US$61) in practice appears not to include domestic
staff.
In Shanghai, the minimum wage is 600 yuan per month, according to Tangqiao
Home Service Company based in the city.
"In addition to the poor salaries," Zhang from the CHSA said, " most people
discriminate against domestic staff."
"This is an historic problem," he explained.
Baomu is the name for live-in housemaids, a word which in Chinese also means
servant.
In past times, servants were among the lowliest class. Totally dependent on
their masters for food and lodging, they were also required to obey
unquestioningly and do all kinds of work. Many had no possessions of their own
and no independence.
"Today, a lot of people still regard housemaids in this way," said Zhang.
"I ran out of patience and just resigned," said Xiao Dai, who is registered
with the Shiji Home Service Company in Beijing's Chaoyang District.
The 38-year-old from Anhui Province has been working as a maid for three
years.
She said her last employer was an old man with a fiery temper.
"He always yelled at me and vented his anger on me." After sticking it out
for two weeks, she quit.
But some are more lucky in the employers they find and are treated well and
with respect.
And the way an employer treats the maid is even more important than salary.
Wang knows of many examples in his company of domestic staff on low salaries,
but they are unwilling to leave because their employers treat them like family
members.
Employers' woes
Dissatisfaction is widespread on both sides, and employers have their own
stories of domestic gripes to tell.
Most of the maids come from the countryside and are women aged between 30 and
40. They come to earn money to feed their family, support their children's
education or pay off debts.
With no training, no knowledge of city life and often ill-educated, the only
work they are fit for is in the low paid domestic or catering sectors.
They invariably fall way below the expectations of employers in terms of
personality, hygiene, knowledge and the skills that are taken for granted by
those from the city.
Some of them are introduced by a relative or someone from their hometown, but
most of them find jobs through the domestic service companies.
"Most of the companies seldom give any real training. It is a factor which
can and has proved very dangerous," said Zhang.
An elderly stroke victim reportedly died of gas poisoning in her own home
last September in Beijing's Fengtai District because her maid did not know how
to operate a gas appliance.
The woman's daughter later sued Beijing Sanba Home Service Company with whom
the maid was registered.
In China, the domestic service market is very under-developed. There are no
stringent regulations. Special training schemes are for very limited few, aiming
at high end of the market.
And given the low salaries, poor working conditions and lowly status,
currently prevailing in the sector, only the most disadvantaged are willing to
join the ranks of domestic staff.
"Reforms are essential and urgently needed in this field," added
Zhang.
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