Majority of housemaids in city still unprotected

Majority of housemaids in city still unprotected

JAKARTA (JP): The efforts to protect housemaids are being hampered by the city administration's failure to register maids in an organised way, an official said.

The administration has also failed to make public the provincial decree on housemaids' welfare, Achmad M.K., an official of the city manpower office said over the weekend.

Achmad, who is the head of the data collection department of the agency, said that only about 25,000, out of about 500,000 housemaids in Jakarta have been registered and are thus covered by the decree which was issued in 1993.

According to estimate, 30 percent of the 1.7 million families in the city have housemaids, he said.

He said there are now 110 maid agencies in Jakarta, but only 25 of them have legal operating permits, while only 50 of the 85 illegal agencies are still active.

"That means we can only record the 25,000 maids distributed by the legal supplier agencies. The maids sent out by the 50 illegal agencies cannot be detected," he said, adding that many families hire housemaids without the help of agencies.

The city administration required the firms to meet the prerequisites by, among other things, providing notarial documents, business permits, taxpayer numbers, disturbance permits, and building permits.

But the requirements are considered tough by most of these firms, mainly because they don't have any permits and tend to keep prospective maids in poor accommodation.

As a result the rights of maids as well as consumers cannot be protected. There are many maids who have to work all day without a rest, while many consumers are complaining that their maids often leave after two or three months, Achmad said.

The Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation has been indicating that most of city's housemaids distribution firms tend to take advantage of the maids as well as of consumers.

It claimed that the firms house maids in tiny rooms and require the maids to pay a certain amount of rent.

Achmad said that the city administration can protect the maids and the consumers through decree No. 6/1993 on housemaids' welfare.

He said the decree requires these firms to make a written report on their activities every three months.

The decree also stipulates that there should be a working agreement between the maid and the consumer.

"And there should be a special team to settle disputes between both parties," he said, adding that the city administration is setting such a team up.

However, he said, the decree is not well known to either the maids and the consumers. For example, the consumers do not understand that they should report to subdistrict office when they hire new maids.

"The decree is still relatively new and it needs time to publicize it so the maids as well as the consumers know their rights," he said.

Achmad said that his office is continuing its effort to publicize the decree by holding a workshop for subdistrict officials, who are expected to pass on this knowledge to their residents.

The office is also holding a workshop on the decree for maids, he said.(yns)