New bylaw on maids planned

New bylaw on maids planned

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The City Council is planning to draft a bylaw to provide legal
protection for domestic helpers, which will stipulate the rights
and obligations of both the domestic helpers and their employers.

Head of the Jakarta Manpower Agency Ali Zubair said on Tuesday
that the bylaw would give detailed rulings on the agreement
between the domestic helper and the employer, including working
hours, holiday, leave, and facilities.

Ali said that it will also stipulate the necessary facilities
for the employee, such as a bedroom that is well-ventilated, a
bathroom, and other things related to health care, Antara
reported.

Ali was speaking to the media on the sidelines of the City
Council's plenary session which discussed the draft at the
council building here.

Ali, however, said that a minimum wage may not be stipulated
in the regulation because usually all daily necessities of the
workers, including meals and accommodation, are provided by the
employers.

Many domestic helpers work long hours, from early in the
morning until late at night, seven days a week. Their only
holidays are during the Idul Fitri holiday. The commonly earn
much less than the Jakarta monthly minimum wage, which is almost
Rp 600,000.

Another thing that will be stipulated in the bylaw is the tax
on recruitment agencies.

"There is a regulation that obliges each recruitment agency to
pay Rp 500,000 in taxes to the city administration every three
years. But it has not been implemented. We will revise the
regulation in accordance with current conditions," Ali said.

Actually, the city administration had issued Bylaw No. 6/1993
on the supervision of domestic helpers' welfare in Jakarta. It
stipulates that the governor is responsible for overseeing the
welfare of domestic helpers in the city, along with the
recruitment agencies and the employers.

However, the bylaw is not properly implemented.

Activists earlier said that the job of a maid was classified
as informal work, which tended to be ignored both by most people
and the government. There were only a few abuse cases of
housemaids which were taken to court, but the victims tended to
lose out as the evidence and witnesses were often stacked in
favor of the employers.