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.

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