Jakarta – Activists urged the government Monday to expedite the drafting of a long-awaited bill designed to protect domestic workers from discrimination, exploitation and mistreatment.
"In Indonesia, domestic work is not recognized as work to which labor standards can be applied. This causes domestic workers to be excluded from even basic labor standards and social protections," Rumpun Griya Perempuan (RGP) chief Aida Milasari told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a seminar on Monday.
Aida said the existing 2003 Labor Law did not provide for working site inspections in private homes, meaning employers of domestic workers cannot be monitored for their compliance with the law, thus making law enforcement almost non-existent.
RGP was ready to assist the government in discussing the proposed law, Aida said, adding that the draft had been before the government for two months already, but no progress had been made on it.
"Even though we hope the law will be issued as soon as possible, we don't want the government to be haphazard in composing the regulations, which could cause disadvantages to the workers." In June the group completed a study on the demographic profiles and working conditions of 173 domestic helpers in Jakarta and West Java's Depok, Parung, Pamulang and Rangkapan Jaya.
"We hope the government will consider our research and input to help it understand what kind of regulations domestic workers really need," she said.
In its report, RGP discusses not only the profiles and background motivations of domestic workers, but also common problems they face, ranging from long working hours and no holidays to inadequate food, sexual harassment and rape.
The current draft bill is yet to provide concrete solutions to such problems, Aida said, either through law enforcement or conflict resolution.
Dewi Susanti, a spokeswoman for domestic workers' organization OPERATA agreed, saying the government did not seem to be serious in its efforts to draft the new regulations.
"We can't wait any longer. We need this law urgently to protect our rights and make us secure in our field of work," said the 21-year-old, who is also a part-time domestic worker.
A 2004 International Labor Organization survey estimated around 2.6 million domestic workers were employed in Indonesia, of whom almost 700,000 were children under the age of 18 years.
According to an Indonesian domestic workers agency report, the demand for such employment is increasing in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi, with hundreds of workers being recruited each day.
House of Representatives member of Commission III on law Nursyahbani Katjasungkani said that if the government wanted to make the law a priority at the next parliament session meeting in 2007, the bill needed to be proposed by September at the latest.
ILO representative Lotte Kejser highlighted potential of the law to provide protection to Indonesian domestic workers abroad.
"The government should open access to justice for domestic workers in their homeland. If such justice is not provided here, it will be difficult for the government to protect domestic workers abroad," she said.
The National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) said around 900,000 Indonesians were currently working in Middle Eastern countries as domestic workers, while an estimated two million Indonesians work in Malaysia, mostly as domestic helpers.
Almost 50 percent of Indonesian workers in Malaysia are believed to have entered the country illegally, and are thus more vulnerable to long working hours, low pay rates and physical abuse.