Domestic helpers: Maids to order?

Slavery was abolished years ago, but the plight of some housemaids today shows that inhumane attitudes never die. The recent self-immolation by a housemaid who endured ill-treatment from her employers in Jakarta has brought attention once again to the problem of domestic helpers denied their basic rights. The Jakarta Post reporters Ida Indawati Khouw and Maria Endah Hulupi take a look at the lives of domestic helpers.

JAKARTA (JP): When broken down to an hourly rate, housemaid "Iyun" earns from Rp 300 to Rp 500 per hour.

The 30 year old works for a merchandise supplier at a housing complex in Bekasi, east of Jakarta.

Her workday starts at 4 a.m. and sometimes last until 2 a.m. the following morning. She does not only have to do household chores in the seven-bedroom, two-story home, but also must help with the family's business.

"The really long working hours usually occur when I must help my boss prepare the merchandise -- like cosmetics and clothes -- including wrapping them and putting on the price tags before they go to market," Iyun said hesitantly in a telephone interview. She was too afraid to leave the house in case her employer found out.

"The earliest I get to bed is 10 p.m."

The widow from Sukabumi, West Java, has never thought that the additional work she does should be reflected in her monthly Rp 250,000 wage.

At the end of her day, she retires to a 12-square-meter room which she shares with her daughter, 11, who also works in the house, though Iyun has "never had the courage" to ask that her daughter be paid for her work.

"I usually sleep on the floor because there's only one mattress and that is used by my daughter," she said. "Thank God that I never have had a serious illness."

Iyun's story is true of many domestic helpers in the capital and around Indonesia. Although they may not have to endure the terrible abuse of Jumiati, who lies in a hospital bed with self- inflicted burns after she could no longer take the blows of her employers in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, they often have no legal protection, no clearly defined working hours, low wages and poor nutrition and health care.

A 1999 survey by the Yogyakarta-based Tjoet Nyak Dien Association, which focuses on women's rights advocacy, of 150 housemaids in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Surabaya showed that on average housemaids worked for seven to nine hours per day, but some worked for 10 hours or more per day.

Their average income in Surabaya was Rp 175,150, Jakarta Rp 115,600 and in Yogyakarta Rp 86,400. Only 42 percent of those surveyed were elementary school graduates.

A full 60 percent of housemaids reported experiencing verbal abuse and 15 percent of them physical abuse.

An expert on social psychology at the University of Indonesia, Dradjat S. Soemantri, said the situation was rooted in the tradition that working as a housemaid was considered a matter of devotion, like servants of the past, and that the housemaids were considered "family members".

"The condition has now changed in that the era demands more professionalism, thus housemaids now are really searching for jobs, not to devote themselves. The abuse occurs because employers still want to preserve the old tradition, and also because life in big cities conditions people to be suspicious and prejudiced," Dradjat said.

Single working woman Elizabeth said she wanted to provide jobs for the "unskilled" even though she could take care of the work around her home herself.

"I have a kind middle-aged servant, whom I treat like my own relative. She helps me with cooking and other nonstrenuous chores," Elizabeth said.

"I help finance one of her children's education in her hometown of Cilacap and encourage her to save some money from her Rp 200,000 monthly salary."

Ignoring rights

Non-governmental organization activists consider the argument that domestic helpers are "family" to be merely a patronizing excuse to deny the workers their basic rights, such as proper wages, working hours and holidays.

"Indonesia still perpetuates feudalism under the structure of capitalism, in which the poor belong to the lower class of society. In this situation, the relationship between housemaids and employers is not a professional one but tends to become something like slavery," said Hening Tyas Sutji from Gema Perempuan, an organization that campaigns for housemaids' rights.

Hening said there was no appreciation for the profession because household chores were considered menial and unskilled labor.

"Their fate relies more on the kindness of the employers. Moreover, as the relationship is regarded as an emotional one regulations are consequently considered unnecessary," she said.

Gema Perempuan, along with other NGOs focusing on women's issues, is now trying to draft a new bylaw on housemaids to regulate their working hours and standard wages, protect their right to organize and ensure their other basic rights as human beings.

The 1993 bylaw on housemaids currently in effect is considered to be focused on the responsibilities of housemaid placement agencies, and does not cover the rights of housemaids in the workplace.

"We realize that the struggle will take a very long time," Hening said.