RI maids in HK protest Megawati govt policy

RI maids in HK protest Megawati govt policy

Associated Press, Hong Kong

A union of Indonesian maids in Hong Kong criticized President Megawati Soekarnoputri's government on Sunday for imposing a temporary ban on exports of domestic helpers.

"The ban is a death memo sentenced to Indonesian workers and our families by the very government that is expected to protect us," Eni Lestari, chairwoman of the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers, said in a statement.

Indonesia on Feb. 1 suspended sending its workers overseas until government officials have set up programs, including language courses, to ensure they improve their skills before departure, Manpower Minister Jacob Nuwa Wea had said.

Nuwa Wea had said the major obstacle was the workers' inability to communicate with their employers, many of them English-speaking or Chinese-speaking.

Labor agencies have sent hundreds of thousands of Indonesian women to work as housemaids, nannies and caregivers for the elderly overseas, including Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, in the last decade.

But the ban would make Indonesian workers less competitive against the constant supply of foreign counterparts and do nothing to solve the more pressing problems, including underpayment and wage cut, Lestari said.

"What good will language skills training do if employers treat us like slaves?" Lestari asked. She said more than 50 percent of Hong Kong's 78,000 Indonesian maids receive payments below the statutory minimum wage, with some getting as little as HK$1,800 a month.

"What it brings is the uncertainty of meeting the needs of our family," said Lestari, who has worked here for more than three years.

The union planned a signatory campaign and demonstrations in the coming weeks against the government decision, she said.

The Indonesian ban wasn't related to a similar one imposed by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on March 5, Lestari said.

Arroyo cut off Hong Kong's supply of Filipino maids after the Hong Kong government said it would cut the minimum monthly wages of foreign domestic helpers by HK$400 to HK$3,270 and impose a monthly levy -- equal to the pay cut -- on employers of foreign maids.

The salary cut takes effect with contracts signed April 1 or later, while the levy will be imposed as of Oct. 1.

Apart from Indonesians, 153,000 Filipinos and smaller numbers from Thailand, Nepal and Sri Lanka work in Hong Kong as domestic helpers.

Officials at the Indonesian Consulate here were not available for comment on Sunday.