Maids, suppliers, give city officials headache

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.