Ratification of ILO Convention not urgent
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia sees no urgency in ratifying the ILO Convention on migrant workers to legally protect its workers overseas, a senior official said yesterday.
"I don't see any point in our ratifying the convention now because it has not yet been enacted by many other countries either," Director General for Industrial Relations and Labor Standards Suwarto said.
Suwarto made the statement in response to the call made by the International Labor Organization (ILO) this week that Indonesia to ratify the convention.
ILO Deputy Director General Mary Chinery-Hesse said while attending the UN conference on women in Beijing on Thursday that Indonesian workers overseas were defenseless because of Jakarta's failure to ratify the ILO conventions ensuring legal protection for women migrant workers.
Tens of thousands of Indonesians work in the Middle East, notably Saudi Arabia, and in Malaysia. There have been persistent reports of physical and sexual abuse of Indonesian workers by their employers in Saudi Arabia.
In response, the government has repeatedly announced it will phase out the sending abroad of unskilled workers and increase the number of skilled workers.
"The convention will work effectively if not only Indonesia, but also other countries, such as Malaysia and Arab Saudi, also ratify it," he said.
He said that although ratification is not compulsory, all countries, including Indonesia, have a moral obligation to adopt ILO conventions to show their commitment to respecting workers' rights.
Indonesia, whose labor law already addresses labor protection measures stipulated in the ILO conventions, will ratify the migrant workers convention in due time, he pledged.
The convention stipulating migrant workers' rights was one of the three conventions discussed during the International Labor Conference in Geneva last June. The other two are conventions on health and occupational safety in mines and among domestic workers.
Up to now, Indonesia has adopted eight ILO conventions concerning, among others, the wage system, equal treatment of local and foreign workers, freedom to associate, forced and child labor, health and occupational safety.
More effective
Suwarto said that instead of ratifying the ILO conventions, Indonesia would rather improve its bilateral relations with countries which employ a large number of Indonesians in a bid to protect its workers.
He said Indonesia has signed bilateral agreements with Malaysia and Saudi Arabia to improve legal protection for the Indonesian workers employed in the two countries.
"Besides, Indonesia has also set up joint teams with the two countries to handle disputes involving Indonesian workers and their employers. And it is better and more effective than waiting for the two countries to ratify the ILO conventions," he said.
He acknowledged that a greater number of Indonesian workers overseas were vulnerable to abuse and maltreatment. But he said this was not solely the fault of Indonesia because many other countries have yet to produce legislation on unskilled foreign workers.
He said that Indonesians working as housemaids in Saudi Arabia are not under protection of the kingdom's labor law because they are viewed as members of their employers' family. (rms)