Putri Prameshwari – Amid endless pressure from activists for the government to formulate a law to protect the rights of domestic workers in Indonesia, the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration on Thursday said such a regulation would be difficult to enforce.
Abdul Wahid Maktub, a special adviser to Manpower Minister Muhaimin Iskandar, said that if passed into law, the domestic worker bill would be hard to implement because of its "uniqueness."
"We are not prepared for new regulations on domestic workers," he said, addressing a discussion held by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.
Even if the hiring of domestic workers were regulated, he said, monitoring the implementation would be problematic. "Domestic workers are unique in a sense that they work inside a household, which makes monitoring a little bit tricky," he said.
A bill on domestic workers was included in the House of Representatives' national legislation program, making it a priority to be discussed this year. However, it was apparently removed from the list after a closed June meeting of the House's Commission IX, overseeing welfare issues.
The bill seeks protection for domestic workers by requiring employers to provide benefits similar to those enjoyed by workers in the formal sector, such as a minimum of 12 days of leave annually after the first year.
The legislation would also allow the recruitment of domestic workers as young as 15 years old, but those under 18 would need written consent from a parent or guardian.
The government commitment on the issue was further tested when the Indonesian delegation, led by the ministry, voted against a convention of workers' protection, the contents of which are similar to the bill, at the International Labor Conference in Geneva last June.
Labor activist Dita Indah Sari said it had been difficult for the government to agree with both the bill and convention because of a conflict of interest.
"Officials of the government are also employers of domestic workers," she said, adding that therefore, they would have to follow the regulations in their own households.
According to Dita, the problem with Indonesian domestic workers was that they had not organized formal protests. "Their voices are not loud enough," she said, "Their movements are not really grabbing any attention."
Currently, around 2.6 million domestic workers are estimated to be employed in Indonesia, 90 percent of whom are women.
Activists have been saying the failure to protect domestic workers at home is contradictory as the government continues to demand protection from other countries for its workers abroad.