Ismira Lutfia – Domestic workers' advocates have lashed out at the House of Representatives for bumping a bill on protecting their rights from the list of priority legislation for deliberation this year.
A coalition led by the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT) said on Monday that House Commission IX, which oversees welfare issues, had on June 2 opted to drop the bill from the priority list of legislation despite the initial fanfare it raised when unveiling it.
Jala PRT chairwoman Lita Anggraini said the decision showed lawmakers' "insensitivity" to the many issues facing domestic workers in the country, including abuse and disfranchisement of basic rights.
Former lawmaker Nursyahbani Katjasungkana said legislation to formalize the job done by domestic workers was urgently needed to end exploitation and ease monitoring of the sector.
"A working relationship should not be determined by where the job takes place or whether it is formal or not," said Nursyahbani, director of the Institute for the Indonesian Women's Association for Justice.
"When their income is targeted as foreign-exchange remittances, the government sees no need to determine whether they are formal or informal workers," she said, referring to the huge sums sent home by the estimated six million Indonesians employed as domestic workers abroad.
Commission IX lawmaker Rieke Dyah Pitaloka, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), told the Jakarta Globe that the commission had put the bill on the back burner because it needed "further and deeper analysis, and consideration of the pros and cons being debated in society."
However, she agreed the bill was about an urgent human-rights issue, and said the commission would meet again to decide whether to reinstate it to the priority list. "We really need to pass this bill into law," she said.
Anis Hidayah, director of labor watchdog Migrant Care, said the lack of domestic legislation to deal with workers' rights "weakens Indonesia's bargaining position" in relation to host countries such as Malaysia or those in the Middle East, where nearly three-quarters of Indonesian migrant workers are employed.
"This lack of legislation will always be a stumbling block in Indonesia's demands for better protection of our workers," Anis said.
Haris Azhar, deputy chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said dismissing the bill as a low priority showed "the country's disregard for the rights of its citizens, mainly those employed as domestic workers."
He said the lack of legislation affected women in particular, who make up the majority of domestic workers and are increasingly forced into the sector because of a dearth of jobs in their home villages.
"The current wave of economic development has passed them by and failed to create jobs for them," Haris said.
As it is currently written, the domestic workers' protection bill would require employers to provide a minimum of 12 days of paid leave annually after the first year, as well as other benefits similar to those enjoyed by workers in the formal sector.
The bill, if passed into law, would allow the recruitment of domestic workers as young as 15 years old, but those under 18 would need written consent from their parents or guardian.