Workers want mandatory homecoming ruling scrapped

Workers want mandatory homecoming ruling scrapped

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Former migrant workers and non-governmental organization (NGO)
activists protested on Thursday, demanding that the Ministry of
Manpower and Transmigration revoke a ministerial decree that
obligates workers to return to Indonesia before renewing their
contracts.

Article 66 of Ministerial Decree No. 104A/2002 states that
workers who intend to extend their overseas work contracts have
to return to Indonesia for at least 30 days.

"As a consequence, we have to renew our contracts through
PJTKI (migrant workers placement agencies), which regards us as
new workers. So they cut our salary again for 7 months, which is
about HK$21,000 (US$2,700)," said Pegi, a former migrant worker.

"If we renew the contracts ourselves, on the other hand, like
workers from the Philippines and Nepal do, through agents in Hong
Kong, we only have to pay the agent HK$367," Pegi said.

In Hong Kong, each contract must be validated by the
Indonesian Consulate, and the Consul would not legalize the
contract unless the applicant first returns to Indonesia.

Nur Syafinah, another former migrant worker who worked in Hong
Kong, added, "Moreover, the rule works against Hong Kong's law on
workers' days off, which states that workers are entitled to 14
days off for one contract period."

The disparity makes their employers, who do not want to wait
30 days for Indonesian workers to return to Hong Kong, to hire
other workers to fill the position. Under such circumstances, the
returning workers have no choice but to register themselves as
new workers and repeat the recruitment process through the PJTKI.

The director for migrant workers at the manpower and
transmigration ministry, Fifi Arianti, met the protesters at the
ministry office, and explained that the article was included to
protect the workers' rights to see their families in Indonesia.

"We mean well; we don't want to see the family ties of migrant
workers to be cut because they don't see each other much," she
said.

Fifi said manpower and transmigration minister Jacob Nuwa Wea
had made it mandatory for workers to return to Indonesia instead
of granting them holiday leave, because he was concerned about
the migrant workers' family unity. "We don't want to be blamed
for divorces occurring in migrant worker families," she said.

However, she admitted that the ministry had not conducted any
surveys on an increase in divorce rates among migrant worker
families.

She added that on April 7, the minister had sent a letter to
the Indonesian Consulate General in Hong Kong, which included an
amendment that workers in Hong Kong could extend their contracts
through agents other than the PJTKI.

In response to the letter, Pegi said, "We have to see if the
letter gives us more protection. We don't know yet, because there
may be any loopholes in it. Well, let's wait and see."

The protesters also deemed the ruling to be presumptuous in
claiming that it was drafted to protect their rights to holidays.

"There are countless rights violations that have to be tackled
by the government regarding migrant workers, such as underpayment
and physical abuse," said one of the protesters.

"So why does the ministry choose to intervene in our family
affairs, saying that it wants to protect our rights?"