Wed, 26 Feb 2003

Maids, suppliers, give city officials headache

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Seemingly washing their hands of the problem, officials at the Jakarta Manpower Agency said on Tuesday that problems arising from unscrupulous maids and their supply agencies were beyond their reach.

"Not all maid supply agencies in the city are registered and, worse still, not all maids are hired from agencies, making it impossible for us to control them," the head of the manpower agency, Ali Zubeir, told The Jakarta Post.

He said that of about the 200,000 people who annually entered Jakarta after the Idul Fitri holiday, most were brought by families or friends to be employed as maids or nannies.

According to the agency, as of November 2002 there were 63 manpower supply agencies in the city which had placed 6,624 maids.

Ali's deputy for employment placement, Superdi Irianto, said the number of unregistered supply agencies was much higher than the number of registered ones, the result of the strict screening of these agencies.

Bylaw No. 6/1993 on the supervision and welfare of maids requires agencies to produce proof of the location and condition of the accommodations for the maids.

The problem is, said Superdi, that only a few agencies can provide such accommodations, while many others use rented houses for their offices and to house maids.

"During our annual check on the offices and shelters managed by registered supply agencies, we found that 20 percent of the agencies frequently moved their offices, some without providing prior notice," he told the Post.

In a recent string of robberies involving maids, police have said that the lack of regulations governing manpower supply agencies has hampered their investigations.

In several cases, police found that the robberies were committed by criminal gangs using maid or nanny supply agencies as fronts.

The police have warned potential employers to undertake a thorough investigation into the background of maids before hiring them, as most manpower cannot provide such essential information.

To resolve this situation, Ali Zubeir said the City Council had drafted a bylaw on manpower, with input from labor experts and labor unions.

The draft, he said, will require agencies to offer potential maids proper training. Sanctions will be imposed on agencies that fail to train their maids, including the revocation of their business permits.

"The draft is expected to be ready in the next two months," he said.

However, Superdi said the position of maids as domestic helpers posed another problem for the administration in applying other manpower-related regulations.

He cited the gubernatorial decree setting the regional minimum wage at about Rp 600,000 per month.

"No households will pay their maids that much, considering that they provide accommodation, food and facilities for the maids and treat them as part of the family.

"Moreover, there are no working contracts that bind the maids to their employers," Superdi said.