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.