Maid placement agencies seek middle ground in disputes

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.