Collection of servants' fee trialed in S. Jakarta
JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta mayoralty has started collecting fees from agencies supplying servants, an official said yesterday.
The city's assistant secretary for social welfare, Soenarjudardji, said fees would eventually be imposed on individual employers of servants.
Soenarjudardji said 1993 city rule no. 6 imposed a three- yearly fee of Rp 500,000 (US$206.10) on agencies supplying servants.
"We are starting to collect the fees in South Jakarta because there are many well-organized agencies supplying servants there," he said.
In South Jakarta the head of the city's manpower agency Suwardja said the mayoralty had told the public that if they employed servants they would be subject to an annual Rp 3,000 fee. This includes the cost of the Rp 500 city stamp.
He said the public had been told about the new rule several times. The fee is intended to swell the city's job training budget.
Kompas daily yesterday quoted readers asking for information about the new fee. They said they had received notices saying the fees would be collected on May 4 and May 5.
The fee was introduced as part of the council's bill on servants' welfare in June 1993. The bill was drafted after cases of servants being abused were reported here in the late 1980s.
The bill introduces contracts between employers and servants and a minimum working age of 15 years. If the servant is between 15 years and 18 years, their parents' permission to work is required. It also introduces 12 days of annual leave.
The fee part of the rule became effective with a governor's decree in 1995.
Soenarjudardji said the city was starting to collect the fees with agencies because it was difficult to record the number of servants in the city.
Migrants
He said the City's Population Agency tried to record the numbers of new migrants every year. It is believed that many of the migrants who come to Jakarta after Idul Fitri sought work as servants.
He said fees would be collected in the other mayoralties, but he did not say when.
In 1996, the agency's city office said only about 25,000 of the estimated 500,000 servants were registered. It is estimated that 30 percent of the 1.7 million families in the city have servants.
The office said there were 110 agencies supplying servants in Jakarta, but only 25 were legal.
The 31-chapter bill regulates the rights and obligations of agencies, employers and servants.
Agencies must be licensed, teach servants housekeeping skills and guarantee that the servants would stay in their job for at least six months.
Agencies are forbidden to send servants outside Jakarta, supply them through brokers or charge them fees.
Employers must be permanent residents. If they do not hire their servants through an agency, they must report the employment arrangement to the city-branch of the Ministry of Manpower. (ste)