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.