Better implementation of housemaid ruling urged

Better implementation of housemaid ruling urged

JAKARTA (JP): An Indonesian Women's Congress executive has
stressed the importance of improved implementation of the Jakarta
Administration's housemaids welfare legislation.

"Regulation No.3/1993 is already ideal as it consists of
technical instructions on how to protect and raise housemaids,"
Aniswati, the head of the Congress' labor section, was quoted by
Antara as saying Wednesday.

The regulation, called the Housemaids Welfare Promotion in
Jakarta, consists of 31 chapters which elaborate on the rights
and obligations of agencies supplying housemaids, employers and
housemaids.

Speaking at a one-day seminar on problems encountered by
housemaids' suppliers, employers and the government, Aniswati
urged the municipality to intensify its supervision to help
prevent housemaids being exploited.

The seminar's 150 participants included maids' rights
observers and officials from the city administration, the
Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Manpower.

Aniswati said improved supervision was needed because many
housemaids were being deprived of their rights.

The congress' chairwoman, Eny Busiri, criticized the city
administration's supervision of the regulation, in which officers
were deployed to go to houses where maids worked. "Such a method
of supervision is intrusive and impolite," she said.

Eny said that the municipality should only be in charge of the
provision of legal support to employers who are often exploited
by distributors of maids.

Supplying maids had increasingly become little more than a
commodity, which needed to be seriously addressed, not only by
housemaids but by their employers as well, she said.

This should involve both improving maids' quality and welfare,
and at the same time giving greater security to their employers,
with the government acting as the arbitrator in disputes, she
said.

"Housemaids play an important role in helping improve the
country's economic growth, so they have to be protected. But
their employers should also have their rights, including being
able to get good quality maids, who are skillful and willing to
stay for long periods of time," she said.

An assistant to the minister of manpower on women's labor
issues, Soedarsono, said the most pressing need was to improve
the development of the available human resources.

This would automatically improve the quality of maids, he
said. (hhr)