Hail to reliable servants

Hail to reliable servants

From Neraca

I would like to share my experience of obtaining reliable
servants, without dousing their profession.

After the recent Lebaran holiday, many Jakartans were saddled
with domestic chores when housewives learnt their servants had
decided to look elsewhere for a job. Many servants did return to
Jakarta, but many of them believed they could find a better paid
job in new families.

The domestic servant profession has become part of the
country's economic system. It should, therefore, be seriously
taken into account. The Central Bureau of Statistics has
classified servants as a member of the household whose rank would
be given more clarity if seen from this context and when under
the wings of a householder.

Due to many of the predicaments mentioned above, domestic
bureaus started to mushroom in the capital. But further
questioning among domestic servants revealed that they actually
prefer to be independent instead of using an agent.

A productive and reliable servant does not want to be
controlled by an agent and would prefer to build a network of
hometown friends or family members. These networks are closely
knitted groups.

This is the supply source. From the demand end, there is also
an agent who usually is unable to conduct satisfactory
transactions. They do not accept domestic candidates in a proper
way, nor do they provide decent accommodation. Domestic agents do
not smoothen the transaction process in the servant market, it is
the other way round. It is therefore not surprising if both
parties, the candidate and the householder, quietly try to
undermine the agents' business.

Pos Kota reported that expensive cars are meeting domestic
servants at Pulo Gadung terminal. This is one effective method.
Another is to find a servant bound for home and ask her if she
would bring a friend along when she returns. Of course, this
servant expects a generous tip for her service.

At the moment a servant's job is attractive to many provincial
female workers who regard the job as a stepping stone to the
formal sector.

It is, in actual fact, an alternative to stem the flow of
female unemployment in the provinces. And for this reason, legal
protection for domestics needs to be drawn up.

Name and address

known to the editor