RI workers 'lose out in Saudi Arabia'

RI workers 'lose out in Saudi Arabia'

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Association of Indonesian Workers' Exporting Companies and
the Indonesian Embassy in Saudi Arabia have been accused of
colluding in their efforts to deal with Indonesian workers in
dispute with their employers.

The association, the Indonesian Embassy in Riyadh and its
consul general's office in Jeddah signed an agreement on Dec. 30
stating that Indonesian workers involved in labor disputes in
Saudi Arabia will be provided with lawyers to assist them.

But should the settlement of their cases take longer than 25
days, the workers will be sent home to have their problems
resolved in Jakarta.

The agreement also stipulates that the association is not
responsible for cases where Saudi employers refuse to pay the
salaries of their workers.

The move came despite an earlier agreement signed last October
by the association and the Indonesian Embassy in Saudi Arabia,
which requires Indonesian workers to each pay a US$11 protection
levy from their monthly wages.

Those working in the informal sector, particularly housemaids,
were a priority, according to Antara.

Yunus Yamani, an advocate for Indonesian workers overseas, on
Saturday blasted the agreement, saying the repatriation of
workers would discourage Saudi employers from resolving disputes.

This means rouge Saudi employers would arbitrarily expel the
workers they dislike and send them back to the Indonesian embassy
or the association for repatriation, he was quoted by Antara as
saying.

For the last 15 years the Saudi government has provided
Indonesian workers involved in disputes with their bosses, flight
tickets home.

Yunus said the collection of US$11 each month would only
encourage corrupt practices among association and embassy
officials.

Indonesian workers in trouble are usually taken to
accommodation centers in Tahrir, Jeddah, and Tasawul in Riyadh,
pending the settlement of their cases by the local government.
But if their cases are not resolved within 25 days, the Saudi
authorities will fly them home.

Yunus lashed out at the agreement dissolving the association's
responsibility for Indonesian workers' unpaid salaries which
comprised 90 percent of all the labor cases.

"(The association) should not clean its hands in dealing with
such cases." he said.

Association Chairman Husein Alaydrus defended December's
agreement, saying it shows the "concrete commitment" of his
organization to protect Indonesian workers in Saudi Arabia.

The agreement would be followed with measures, including a
possible legal aid institute in Indonesian, to help provide
comprehensive protections, including the provision of lawyers and
compensation for workers, he said.

"As part of the cooperation, we are now negotiating the amount
of compensation that must be prepared by a recruitment agency for
its workers," Husein said.

He said if the negotiations were successful, the labor
recruitment agencies would no longer need to worry about its
workers as their problems would have been resolved by the unnamed
institute.

Indonesia sends between around 13,000 and 15,000 workers to
Saudi Arabia each month. Currently, at least 286 workers are
involved in various labor cases. They are being housed at the
Indonesia's representative offices in Riyadh and Jeddah.