Duties and boundaries

What Duties Should Not Be Assigned to a Maid?

Three things a foreign domestic helper is explicitly not permitted to do, plus a fourth boundary of a different kind — each sourced to a specific government page, standard contract clause, or misconduct term, rather than general good-practice advice.

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The short answer

Three boundaries are explicit written prohibitions, not just generally advisable: working at a second household or a relative’s residence, helping in a family business or commercial activity, and washing the family car. The first two come from the JTKSM/ILO standard employer guide’s own Q&A; car washing is named directly on Immigration’s own FDH page. Each has its own dedicated guide with the exact quote. A fourth item works differently: the standard contract’s misconduct clause separately lists working for another employer as grounds for ending the contract without notice — a termination trigger rather than a stated duty prohibition, though it points at the same underlying boundary. A fifth boundary, medical and nursing-adjacent tasks, sits outside the role for yet another reason, covered separately.

At a glance

Second household: Explicitly prohibitedThe JTKSM/ILO guide states directly that directing her to work at a relative’s residence is prohibited — covered in its own dedicated guide.
Family business: Explicitly prohibitedThe same guide names catering, restaurants, and sundry shops as examples of what’s covered by this prohibition — its own dedicated guide has the detail.
Car washing: Named directly on Immigration’s own pageStated as a specific parenthetical exclusion from domestic chores, not inferred — its own dedicated guide has the exact wording.
Working for another employer: Grounds for termination without noticeThe model contract’s own misconduct clause lists this specifically as grounds for termination — a separate clause from the second-household and family-business prohibitions, which come from the JTKSM/ILO guide’s Q&A instead.

The four boundaries, and where each comes from

Two of these come from the JTKSM/ILO employer guide’s own Q&A: directing her to help at a relative’s residence is prohibited outright, and so is directing her into a family business or commercial activity, with catering, a restaurant, or a sundry shop given as named examples. Neither is a matter of custom or good practice — both are stated as direct restrictions in an official employer guide.

A third comes from Immigration’s own page: domestic chores are named directly, with an explicit parenthetical excluding car washing — not a general inference about what "chores" might reasonably cover, but a specific named exclusion in the government’s own text. A fourth sits in the standard contract’s misconduct clause, which separately lists working for another employer as grounds for ending the contract without notice.

Working at a second household or a relative’s residence.
Helping in a family business or commercial activity.
Washing the family car.
Being directed by, or working for, another employer entirely.

Why these are worth naming as a set

Each of these can look, on its own, like a small or occasional request — an hour helping at a relative’s shop, a quick wash of the car on a Saturday. None of them is a judgement call, even when it feels minor, and the practical risk if one happens anyway is real: PERKESO ties benefit eligibility directly to the household duties named in her contract, so an injury during any task outside that scope risks the claim being rejected outright.

Reading these four together is more useful than encountering each one separately when a specific situation comes up — it gives you the full shape of what’s outside the role before you’re deciding on a specific request in the moment.

A fifth boundary, for a different reason

Medical and nursing-adjacent tasks — administering medication, wound care, injections — sit outside the role too, but for a different reason than the four above: this isn’t about what an employer is permitted to direct, it’s about what requires a registered nurse or trained caregiver for safety reasons. The dedicated guide on medical-care boundaries covers exactly where that line sits.

For what the role does cover, see the dedicated guide on what duties a maid can reasonably do — the two guides are meant to be read as a pair, one naming the scope and this one naming its edges.

Official and primary sources

Questions this page answers

Is asking for occasional help at a relative’s house a problem?

Yes — the JTKSM/ILO guide states this prohibition directly, without carving out an exception for occasional or informal help.

What counts as a "family business" for this purpose?

The guide names catering, a restaurant, and a sundry shop as examples — framed as illustrations of business or commercial activity generally, not an exhaustive list limited to only those three.

Is car washing named specifically, or is that an assumption?

It’s named directly on Immigration’s own FDH page, as an explicit exclusion from domestic chores — not an inference.

What happens if she’s injured while doing one of these excluded tasks?

PERKESO ties benefit eligibility to the household duties named in her contract — an accident during any of these four sits outside that scope, risking the claim being rejected.

Is there a boundary beyond these four?

Yes — medical and nursing-adjacent tasks sit outside the role too, for a different, safety-based reason, covered in the dedicated guide on medical-care boundaries.

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What Duties Should Not Be Assigned to a Maid?

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DomesticHelper editorial teamReviewed 14 August 2026Sourced from Malaysian government registriesIndependent of the hiring agenciesEditorial standards