Action against illegal house maid agencies urged

JAKARTA (JP): The City Manpower Agency was urged to take stern action against illegal agencies supplying domestic help, a city official said yesterday.

The city's assistant secretary for social welfare, Soenarjudardji, said that the large number of illegal agencies operating would affect municipality revenue.

"Their illegal operations will affect the amount of revenue we expect from them," Soenarjudardji said at City Hall.

The municipality introduced a rule on domestic helpers' welfare in June 1993, following cases of abuse in the late 1980s.

Under the rule, the municipality imposes a Rp 500,000 fee every three years (US$204.90) on agencies supplying domestic help.

Moreover, the rule also stipulates that a domestic helper's employer is subject to an annual Rp 3,000 fee, including the cost of a Rp 500 city stamp.

The fee was effective under a gubernatorial decree in 1995.

The head of the City Manpower Agency, R.H. Sudhartin, said on Friday that 97 percent of agencies supplying domestic help in the city were illegal.

"Out of 76 agencies supplying domestic help in the city, only two of them have business permits," he said.

He blamed the large amount of illegal agencies on owners' lack of understanding of the city's rule on domestic help.

Sudhartin said that he will soon remind agencies supplying domestic help about the importance of having business permits.

He will also cooperate with agencies to improve their capabilities in producing professional domestic helpers.

The City Manpower Agency, he said, will start holding a training course for domestic helpers next month.

"In the first stage we will train 2,000 domestic helpers for three to five days," Sudhartin said.

He said the manpower agency is facing difficulties in recording the number of domestic helpers employed throughout the city.

"It's difficult to record the number of domestic helpers, because most of them are hired by families within days of contacting an illegal agency," Sudhartin said.

He said that costs of the training course are financed by funds collected from employers and part of the city budget.

"The city has set aside Rp 600 million to train domestic helpers in this ongoing fiscal year," Sudhartin said.

The 31-chapter rule on domestic help regulates the rights and obligations of agencies, employers and the helpers themselves.

The rule also covers contracts between employers and domestic helpers and a minimum working age of 15 years, unless one has parental permission. It also introduces 12 days of annual leave.

Agencies' obligations include, among other things, processing licenses, giving training in housekeeping skills and guaranteeing that the workers would stay at their jobs for at least six months.

Agencies are forbidden to send domestic helpers outside Jakarta, supplying them through brokers or charging them fees.

Employers must also be permanent residents. They must report to the manpower agency if they do not employ domestic helpers through agencies.

In 1996, the municipality said only 25,000 of an estimated 500,000 domestic helpers were registered. It is estimated that 30 percent of the 1.7 million families in the city have domestic help. (ste)