Agus Triyono – Several organizations calling their coalition the Action Committee for Household Workers called on the government on Sunday to quickly ratify an international accord providing household workers with stronger bargaining power at home and abroad.
The committee, including the Confederation of Indonesian Labor Unions (KSBSI), the Association of Workers' Unions and the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT), said the International Labor Organization's Convention No. 189 on decent work for household laborers can improve their fate and prosperity both domestically and overseas.
"We urge the government and the DPR [House of Representatives] to quickly ratify the convention as a follow-up of SBY [President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] in his speech to the 100th session of the International Labor Organization on June 14," KSBSI chairwoman Sulistri said.
She said the government should use the convention, adopted by the ILO in June, as the basis for its laws and regulations at the national level.
Indonesia has about 10.7 million domestic household workers and another 6 million working overseas. Sulistri said household workers both in the country and overseas were subject to the same violence and human rights violations, including exploitation, abuse and virtual slavery.
Ip Pui Yu, a regional coordinator for the International Domestic Workers' Network, called on Jakarta to learn from its neighbor, the Philippines.
"There have already been several countries which have aired their preparedness to ratify that convention, including the Philippines, South Africa and Kenya. Therefore, we hope Indonesia can follow them, especially the Philippines, because their migrant workers number almost the same as Indonesia's," Ip said.
The coalition's demand comes after lawmakers agreed on Friday to drop a key bill on labor from their list of priority legislation to be deliberated next year but opted to include a much-awaited bill on domestic workers.
Opposition to the labor bill came from five of the six coalition parties: the Golkar Party, National Awakening Party (PKB), National Mandate Party (PAN), United Development Party (PPP) and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), as well as from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
Several organizations for household workers have held rallies at the House in the past few weeks to push for the formal inclusion of the bill on workers protection in the list of laws to be debated in 2012.