Maid placement agencies seek middle ground in disputes

By Maria Endah Hulupi

JAKARTA (JP): Ensuring worker safety and welfare while on the job is part of the responsibilities of foundations that recruit and place domestic servants.

Or so it should be. Some criticize the agencies for not doing enough to ensure that both their workers and the employees' rights are protected.

Foundations contend that immediate steps, ranging from discussion of the problem or even reporting it to the authorities, are taken by them to settle problems of unpaid wages, disagreements and abusive treatment.

The founder of Yayasan Cendana Raya, Bu Gito, said that her foundation prioritized a familial approach to a better understanding of what happened from the perspectives of the customer and housemaids but if abuse continued, the foundation would not hesitate to inform the police.

"I have informed our workers that if a disagreement occurs, they have to immediately contact the foundation, which would act as mediator in customer-domestic servant conflict," said Gito, whose foundation places an average of 10 domestic helpers every day.

"So far dialog is effective to sort things out but if it continues or becomes serious or later involves physical abuse, we would not hesitate to report it immediately to the authorities," she said.

The foundation, Bu Gito explained, would send letters to warn customers whenever they failed to fulfill the servant's rights, which include a standard wage, ranging from Rp 150,000 to Rp 250,000 per month, medical treatment and basic sanitary needs, such as providing sanitary napkins.

But she added there had been no complaints of abusive treatment from her workers.

"Most complaints from my workers are mainly about delayed salary payment, which are settled through dialog, while some customers complain about inexperienced domestic servants, a situation that could be remedied by finding a substitute," she added.

Similar precautions are adopted by Yayasan Mitra Karya, which places an average of 40 people monthly.

Foundation secretary Erika said that her workers were first informed about what the customers expected from them and that they had to inform the foundation about disagreements, unfair and abusive treatment from clients.

"We always recheck the information we receive from our workers with our clients. This enables us to get to know the client's family better. If the abuse continues or a disagreement is left unsettled after the initial dialogue, we cannot tolerate the situation, and take our worker back to the foundation. This happened three years ago," she said, adding that reports from its workers to the foundation were about hitting and verbal abuse.

She also explained that there were cases where the clients took the initiative to report her workers to the police for stealing.

"In such a case we would cooperate with the authorities but some clients make false reports. They accuse our workers when it is one of their family members who has taken the missing things without informing the other members of the family," Erika added.

Separately, a staff member of Yayasan Setia Karya, Haryanto, said workers were told not to tolerate abuse.

"We notify our workers that whenever a member of the client's family treats them badly, this includes pinching, hitting or kicking, they have to inform the foundation," he said.

In such cases, he added, the foundation, which channels 30 people monthly, would check the information with the clients.

"First, we notify our client that we have received reports of bad treatment from our workers; if it's true, we urge them to improve their treatment. If the client's fail to do so, we will take our workers back," Haryanto said, adding that most workers reported that they had had disagreements with other servants or baby sitters working in the same family.

However, if a worker reported to the foundation that she suffered physical abuse, the foundation would inform the police and let them handle the case, Haryanto said.