Anita Rachman – The government said it would throw its weight behind a newly launched coalition of labor unions that hopes to help migrant workers who would otherwise lack representation while employed abroad.

Voluntary Services Overseas (VOS), which is composed of seven unions from 18 regions across the country, officially began working as a coalition on Monday.

Jumhur Hidayat, head of National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Overseas Labor (BNP2TKI), said the government was willing to support the effort.

"VOS will collaborate with labor unions in the destination countries. And that's legal," he said. "What is illegal is for Indonesians to gather and form their own organizations overseas."

Muhammad Rodja, a spokesman for the new group, said it would work with existing overseas unions to help meet migrant workers' needs.

Rodja, who also serves as president of the Reformed All Indonesian Workers Union, said the group was needed because labor unions in the country "are not really strong. So we need to work with those in destination countries to protect our workers there."

Jumhur said a handful of Indonesian migrant workers started the collaborative effort. He cited as an example tens of thousands of Indonesian plantation workers in Malaysia's Johor who worked with the Malaysian labor organization National Union of Plantation Workers. Similar steps had been taken by Indonesian workers in Korea and several other destination countries.

"They will get good protection, because the labor laws apply to them and they can report to the labor union in case something happens," Jumhur said.

He said that by uniting, workers would gain leverage and boost their bargaining power.

He said with a better negotiating position "no single party exploits another," a phenomenon that often happens in the destination countries. "Labor unions there work with the countries' ministries of manpower," he said.

He said that, unfortunately, overseas labor protection in the most common destination countries did not extend to domestic workers, which make up 55 percent of the total of 6 million migrant workers overseas.

Domestic workers, Jumhur said, were not regulated by law in destination countries such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Malaysia.

Jumhur added that the BNP2TKI is working on efforts to establish shelters for domestic workers so that they are not forced to stay at employers' houses.