The policy, costing RM75 a year, will cover a domestic helper in case of accident, medical treatment, hospitalisation, and for her repatriation, if needed.
The Home Affairs Ministry will launch the insurance scheme at the end of this month, Minister Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said yesterday. He said the scheme would be provided by a government-linked company.
"RM75 per annum is nothing for employers but it will take care of the maid in case of medical emergencies.
"It will also give a better signal to Indonesia, our major supplier of maids," Radzi said after his ministry's post-cabinet meeting.
There are about 380,000 Indonesian maids in Malaysia and their employment has been a touchy subject following cases of alleged abuse.
"We hope this will make Indonesia feel more comfortable to continue supplying us with domestic helpers."
Radzi said his ministry was compiling data on foreign workers in each of the sectors to identify which countries they came from, with a view to eventually reducing foreign labour in certain sectors and replacing them with locals.
The data would be presented to the cabinet in two weeks.
He said it was possible the cabinet would either draw up guidelines based on the study, or enforce prohibitions to limit foreign workers of certain nationalities to a certain sector.
Radzi said an example that would impact the workforce was the recent announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak that all airports in Malaysia would have to hire locals for front-line services.
