Domestic Workers Protection Law: Breaking Inequality, Restoring Workers' Dignity

After navigating a long and winding path, the Domestic Workers Protection Bill (RUU PPRT) was finally enacted into law during a plenary session of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) on Tuesday (21/4/2026). This gavel strike is not merely a marker of the end of the legislative process, but a symbol of the state’s recognition of domestic workers who have long been sidelined from the mainstream of our labour law. The cheers from domestic workers (PRT) welcoming this enactment are not fleeting euphoria. It represents an accumulation of pent-up hopes over more than two decades—since this bill was first proposed and repeatedly entered the National Legislation Programme (Prolegnas), yet often stalled on legislative desks, a consequence of entrenched cultural systems and half-hearted attention to regulating the domestic sector. It is as if employers hold an upper hand with nearly unlimited authority, while workers are always in a subordinate position vulnerable to exploitation and inhumane actions by their employers. Ironically, this situation is exacerbated by the frequent absence and powerlessness of law enforcement in addressing imbalanced employment relations. From the perspective of power relations, as once explained by Michel Foucault, power does not always operate through formal state instruments but can also through social practices that appear normal on the surface. The employer (employer) and PRT (employee) relationship is a concrete example of how power works subtly in unregulated domestic spaces—sufficient lesson that it always leads to inequality and inhumane relations, which unfortunately are continuously reproduced as something considered normal. It is here that the significance of the PPRT Law becomes crucial. This law is not merely adding to the list of regulations, but conducting structural interventions in the unhealthy domestic employment relations that have persisted. It brings law into the private space that has so far escaped regulation, while affirming that domestic work is work with equal economic and social value. One important breakthrough is the recognition of rights to social security for health and employment. The state no longer views PRT as informal workers outside the protection system, but as legal subjects entitled to social security. The financing scheme involving the state and employers reflects a more progressive shared responsibility approach within the welfare state framework.