House ignores abuse of domestic workers

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 08/28/2009

How long will the country tolerate the prolonged slavery of housemaids? The government insists it is difficult and potentially counterproductive to regulate the domestic sub-sector and the House of Representatives has not made the issue a top priority.

However, the government and civil society groups have cried out against the inhumane treatment of Indonesian migrant workers that are mostly employed as housemaids overseas.   

"Creating a law to protect domestic workers is a long process as such a regulation is a contentious issue, for that reason it would be best to let legislators in the new term handle the issue," Ribka Tjiptaning, the chairwoman of the House's Commission IX on labor, health and social affairs, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

She admitted the 2003 Labor Law did not regulate the informal sector, including domestic workers. 
She suggested the handling of housemaids should be entrusted to their employers, while crimes against abusive employers should be handled by the police.

Tisnawati Karna, another member from the commission concurred, saying the relevant laws could be enforced to protect domestic workers.

The women's empowerment ministry in cooperation with the ILO and several civil society groups, have prepared a draft law that stipulates minimum wages, working hours, weekly days off, annual leave and a labor contract, but the ministry for people's welfare dropped the draft.

Separately, the Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno insisted that the issuance of formal rulings on domestic workers would spark protest from employers and end in labor dismissals that could worsen employment.

"That is why the government dropped the draft law and declined to support the proposed UN convention on the protection of housemaids," he said in a dialogue with Migrant Care.

He also said the government would not ratify the 1990 UN Convention (not the 2003 ILO convention as was reported on Thursday) on the protection of migrant workers and their families immediately because countries employing Indonesian migrant workers had yet to do so. Migrant Care executive director, Anis Hidayah, criticized the government's policy as discriminatory, saying the government should also be held responsible for the increasing abuse of housemaids both at home and overseas. (mrs)