Labor agencies demand protection for domestics

Labor agencies demand protection for domestics

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta

A group of labor agencies providing domestic workers urged the
Jakarta administration to rectify a regulation on domestic
workers in a bid to promote labor protection amid rising reports
of abuse committed by employers.

"A revision to the bylaw is urgent, especially for the workers
who are recruited directly by their employers from villages," Edy
Gunno, chairman of the Forum of Domestic Worker Suppliers, told
reporters during a rally at City Hall on Monday.

Edy said that the workers who were recruited directly were
often underpaid and usually had to work overtime, while the
employers did not provide meals for live-in workers, unlike their
fellow workers who were contracted through labor agencies and
worked under contracts.

"We expect the revised bylaw to give clear guidelines for the
administration to monitor workers as well as impose sanctions
against abusive employers."

The existing Bylaw No. 6/1993 stipulates a minimum age of 18
for domestic workers, unless the workers can produce a letter of
permission from their parents.

The bylaw also requires an employer to give proper meals to a
live-in worker. In addition, an employer is also required to give
the worker annual leave and is still required to pay his or her
salary while the worker is on leave.

However, Edy said, most of the requirements are ignored by
employers, a condition which is worsened by ineffective
monitoring by the administration.

The International Labor Organization estimates that more than
200,000 children below the age of 18 in Greater Jakarta were
working last year without legal protection, mostly as domestic
workers. The ILO also estimates there are around 800,000 child
workers nationwide.

On Friday, two nursemaids, Solikhah, 23, and Suprianti, 20,
filed a complaint with the National Commission on Human Rights,
reporting abusive treatment by their employer. They said they had
been slapped, hit, and confined in the employer's house in
Menteng, Central Jakarta.

The Jakarta Manpower Agency head Ali Zubeir admitted that his
agency found it difficult to monitor domestic workers in the city
in order to better protect their rights.

"It is difficult to monitor them one by one due their high
mobility. Besides, we will face technical difficulties to check
the number of domestic workers employed by a household, for
instance," Zubeir told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Zubeir added that the administration was drafting a bylaw to
regulate manpower in the city.

"However, we will not include the issue of domestic workers in
the bylaw, but will regulate it in a gubernatorial decree," he
said.