Awaiting the PPRT Bill to Be Enacted This Year

DPR RI is continuing to discuss the Draft Law on Protection for Domestic Workers (RUU PPRT), with plans for its enactment in 2026. The House of Representatives’ Legislative Body (Baleg) is gathering public input, and on Thursday 5 March it invited representatives of domestic workers (PRT) and various institutions and organisations representing them. The meeting took place in the Baleg hearing room at the Parliament complex in Senayan, Jakarta, and several proposals and inputs from the public, through PRT representatives and the organisations, were received by Baleg. Komnas Perempuan urged that the RUU PPRT be enacted within a single session, arguing it is urgent as part of Indonesia’s care economy road map. The government has launched the care economy roadmap. Domestic workers form an essential part of this economy, supporting other family members’ participation in the workforce, yet their work is often treated as natural and not economically valued, a bias that Komnas Perempuan described as gender bias. Enacting the RUU PPRT would recognise care work as employment with economic value, provide fair and specific labour protections, and support the development of the national care economy, she argued. The RUU PPRT has waited 22 years to be enacted. Rieke Diah Pitaloka, a member of Commission XIII and head of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers (KPI), urged swift passage, noting the bill has waited more than two decades. She highlighted that around 5.2 million Indonesian migrant workers are abroad, with about 2.5–3 million working as domestic workers and around 100,000 new placements each year. Migrant workers contribute significantly to Indonesia’s economy; remittances in 2024 were around USD 15.7 billion (about Rp 253 trillion). Ironically, the sector delivering substantial economic contributions remains under the weakest legal protections. Indonesia has not yet ratified ILO Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers, and domestic workers in the country are not fully recognised in the national labour law system. Rieke stressed that the RUU PPRT cannot wait any longer; the state should not benefit from the earnings of migrant workers without providing proper legal protection, as the bill has waited 22 years. In response, Baleg chairman Bob Hasan assured that the RUU PPRT will be enacted this year, though he could not provide a month. The discussion would resume after the session begins on 10 March, with hope that input received would assist in refining the draft. The party politician from Gerindra emphasised that all public aspirations would be accommodated in the RUU PPRT, and that the ministry of manpower would be invited during the debate; nearly all inputs were expected to be incorporated in the substantive content, while the language would be carefully crafted to reflect the underlying wishes.