Activists call for ruling to protect domestic workers

Activists call for ruling to protect domestic workers

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The fact that no single law exists to ensure the rights of
domestic workers is endangering the rights of millions of maids
across the country, activists said on Wednesday.

"This is a sensitive issue for our policymakers, because if
they regard them as formal workers, they would have to give them
the same rights as other workers, such as paying them in
accordance with regional minimum wage regulation, giving them
holidays and leave, fixed work hours and contracts," Aida
Milasari of non-governmental organization Rumpun Gema Perempuan
said.

MB Wijaksana of Jurnal Perempuan (Women's Journal) said the
absence of such a law was ironic, considering that domestic
workers benefited the government by reducing the number of
unemployed.

"There is no law at the national level at all that can give
them protection -- socially, economically or legally -- to work
in Indonesia, even though their work reduces the unemployment
rate by a quarter," he said.

The long-running issue of the lack of protection for maids
against abuse by employers resurfaced following reports on
Tuesday in this paper that an Indonesian woman had been jailed in
the U.S. for nearly four years for forcing an Indonesia made into
virtual slavery.

Wijaksana said that Law No. 13/2003 on manpower does not
mention domestic workers while Law No. 23/2004 on the eradication
of domestic violence touches only on physical abuse, not on
working relations.

Jurnal Perempuan said in a recent edition that the number of
domestic helpers was about 2.5 million, employed by 5.41 percent
of families in Indonesia. The number almost equals one-quarter of
the number of unemployed people, which is about 9.5 million.

He and Aida welcomed the punishment meted out to the
Indonesian woman by the U.S. court for abusing her maid.

"That's something that we have to learn to do here, let alone
exceeding working hours. Even if a maid gets raped, beaten or
even killed, perpetrators here do not get the punishment they
deserve," Aida said.

According to the 39th edition of Jurnal Perempuan, published
on Tuesday, if legal protection is not provided immediately, the
problems suffered by the domestic workers could lead to a new
form of slavery.

"Domestic workers have vulnerable working relationships and
weak bargaining positions," said the journal in its most recent
edition themed Domestic Workers.

However, Wijaksana pointed out that several provincial
administrations had drafted regulations to protect domestic
workers, which shows that they are more progressive than the
central government.

"Jakarta has already issued Bylaw No. 6/1993 on the welfare of
maids, Yogyakarta is discussing a draft on domestic workers, and
I heard that Manado also regulates domestic workers in its bylaw
on human trafficking," he said.

However, he criticized Bylaw No. 6/1993, saying it did not
protect domestic workers because it mainly regulated the fees
levied by recruitment agencies in order to garner more income for
provincial coffers.

Both activists agreed that the draft being discussed at the
Yogyakarta Regional Council was the most progressive since it
contained definitions of the work involved, obligatory contracts,
minimum working age, holidays, work hours and punishment for
parties who violate the bylaw.

"But it would be more effective if we had a law on the
protection of domestic workers at the national level," she said.
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