Most domestic help agencies illegal

JAKARTA (JP): The City Manpower Agency's supervision of companies that supply domestic helpers is hindered by a lack of funds and facilities, an official said yesterday.

R.H. Sudhartin, the head of the agency, said limited funds prevented the agency from providing training courses for both the suppliers and the housemaids.

"The city also doesn't have enough training facilities for the housemaids."

Of the 76 domestic help agencies operating in the city, only three have business permits. The rest are illegal, Sudhartin said.

Based on manpower agency data, there are some 450,000 maids working for about 1.7 million families in the city.

"We are implementing new registration requirements for maids working in the city in a bid to gather accurate data on the number of helpers and to send them to a city training program."

Sudhartin said the agency, in cooperation with the city's statistics bureau, have so far listed 200,000 of the workers.

The city is currently conducting a pilot program, providing free training for maids in 16 subdistricts throughout the city's five mayoralties, he said.

The program, which started two months ago, is aimed at improving the maids' skills, including how to use a washing machine, electric iron and other modern household equipment, he said.

"This year we have trained some 2,000 household helpers."

The maids are trained at the agency's subdistrict offices and each participant receives Rp 2,500 (75 U.S. cents) for transport costs.

"We have to teach them basic skills about how to become household helpers because most of them come from villages and have zero knowledge about how to live in a big city."

Sudhartin said the maids were given a certificate, a legal contract with their employers and an identification card from the municipality when they completed the course.

"With a contract and an identification card, the maid's position is better protected."

Some maids are victimized because their employers are not patient enough to teach them and they eventually start beating the workers, he said.

The city has allocated a fund of Rp 600 million to train domestic helpers in the 1997/1998 fiscal year.

A 31-chapter regulation on domestic help, which was issued in June 1993, sets out the rights and obligations of agencies, employers and the helpers themselves.

The regulation also imposes a minimum working age of 15 for domestic helpers unless they have parental permission. It also introduces 12 days of annual leave.

Sudhartin conceded that the huge number of illegal maid suppliers was the result of arduous procedures for the processing of permits.

Maid suppliers must have a building permit, sufficient training resources, living quarters and public facilities, such as prayer rooms and toilets.

"It's hard for the maid suppliers to meet the standards and regulations set by the municipality," he said.

"Many illegal suppliers have shabby quarters and the maids are housed like animals in cages." (07)