Riyadh: Indian maids working in Saudi Arabia would get a monthly salary of around Rs 19,250 under a new labour contract that aims to better protect their rights, a Saudi recruitment committee has said. The National Recruitment Committee has fixed the monthly salary of Indian maids at 1,200 Saudi Riyal. The new labour contract stipulates that maids must be given free time for at least eight hours daily and a paid vacation of 15 days annually or 30 days after two years of service. Maids must also be given return economy tickets, the committee said. The employers must deposit maids' salaries in their bank accounts in the Kingdom at the end of every month and show proof of payment to the maids, Arab News reported.

They will also pay SR 168 in fees for the endorsement of their maids' documents at the embassy, the report said. The employers should also help workers transfer their salaries back home and maids should be given enough freedom to contact the embassy or consulate or their family members, it said. A crash course would also be given to the Indian maids in each of the subcontinent's states in India before they are sent to Saudi Arabia. The age of Indian maids looking for employment in Saudi Arabia has been set between 25 to 50 years to guarantee protection of domestic workers.

India had first stipulated the maids must be at least 40 years old before the two countries reached a compromise setting that age in line with an agreement that will guarantee protection for the domestic workers from the subcontinent. "Earlier there was no age limit set for the maids coming from India," an official with the Indian Embassy in Saudi Arabia told PTI over phone. More than 1.5 million housemaids from the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other Asian and African nations work in Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy and the world's dominant oil exporter.