Saudi Arabia pledges to protect RI workers

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Saudi government has vowed to enforce the new labor contract to provide the basic rights of Indonesian maids working in the Islamic country.

Director General of Migrant Labor Placement at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration I Gusti Made Arka said he had received a diplomatic note from the Saudi Embassy in Jakarta to inform him about the Saudi government's plan to enforce the new labor contract.

"After a three-month suspension, the Saudi Embassy is slated to start issuing work permits for Indonesian citizens wanting to work in Saudi Arabia. The issuance of new work permits will be followed by the enforcement of the long-awaited new labor contract," he told a news conference here on Tuesday.

The government has suspended labor exports to Saudi Arabia in order to list all Indonesian workers working there and to review the labor contract.

According to data from the manpower ministry, some 600,000 Indonesians work in Saudi. However, the number is believed to have increased to more than one million since many Indonesians use pilgrimage visas to enter the country, but remain there to work.

Indonesia sends between 15,000 and 20,000 workers to Saudi Arabia per month. Most are employed as domestic helpers.

The new labor contract designed by a joint team from the two countries sets the monthly wage for new maids at 600 riyal (US$160) and for experienced workers at 900 riyal. The previous labor contract did not regulate minimum wages.

"It is the first time that minimum wages for housemaids has been regulated," Arka said, adding that previously the wage of new workers was determined based on negotiations between Indonesian labor exporters, their Saudi Arabian counterparts and employers.

The new contract also stipulates that workers have the right to take one day off per week, to rest for at least eight hours a day and have contact either with Indonesian representatives in Saudi Arabia or their relatives back home.

"These main labor standards are included in the labor contract to give legal certainty to Indonesian workers about their wages, health care, leisure time and other fundamental rights as stipulated in the ILO convention on workers' basis rights," Arka said.

The new contract also requires employers and foreign agencies to provide their addresses and phone numbers in order to allow Indonesian authorities and their workers' relatives to stay in contact, especially if the maids encounter trouble.

Arka also said Indonesia was still negotiating with Saudi authorities to give annual and biannual leave to Indonesian workers and that the negotiation's results would be included in the bilateral labor agreement scheduled to be signed by the two countries in September.

He said the Saudi government had also signaled that it would accept the proposed agreement, which covers not only workers' basic rights but also the general rulings the two countries would adopt to provide protection for Indonesian workers as required by law.

"The draft agreement has been studied by the Saudi government and there are indications it will accept it and sign it in time," he said.

As required by Law No. 39/2004 on labor exports, the Indonesian government has proposed a bilateral labor agreement because unlike Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea, Arab Saudi has no special regulations to protect foreign workers.