RI lacks ‘political will’ to help housemaids

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 08/27/2009

Migrant Care, an NGO advocating for the rights of migrant workers, has urged the government to immediately ratify the 2003 ILO convention on the protection of migrant workers and their families to counter increasing abuse against housemaids both at home and abroad.

"The government should no longer have any reasons to delay ratifying this important convention.

They should remember the increasing number of fatalities in workplace, labor extortion both at home and overseas, widespread trafficking of women and children and the increase in HIV/AIDS among sex workers," Migrant Care executive director, Anis Hidayah, told The Jakarta Post by telephone in Jakarta on Wednesday.

She said the government was reluctant to ratify the convention because it believed the measures would only protect domestic, not international, workers.

"But it is impossible for Indonesia to ask other countries to ratify the convention if it itself does not do it. If all UN member countries ratify the convention, all destination countries employing Indonesian migrant workers will be obliged to take measures to protect them. Likewise, Indonesia will also reciprocate and protect expatriates working here, including housemaids," she said.

Anis said the number of workers who had either died or been abused at their work places in Malaysia and Middle East had spiked in the last three years, despite the signing of a bilateral labor agreement and memorandums of understanding (MOUs) between the two countries.

The ILO convention, which took effect on July 1, 2003, has only been ratified by 35 countries. It stipulates that migrant workers have the right to form a union, be protected from arbitrary dismissal, move to another workplace and seek another job.

A joint working group from Indonesia and Malaysia is still reviewing the bilateral labor agreement but have agreed workers should be allowed one day off per week and be allowed to hold onto their own passport.

Migrant Care called on the joint working group to also allow migrant workers — mainly housemaids — to be allowed to leave their workplace on their day off and visit whoever they feel. They also demanded that workers be able to maintain contact with their relatives back home.

"If workers are not allowed to leave their place of employment on their day off," Anis said, "then the review becomes quite redundant."

Anis said it was regrettable the government had decided to not support a proposed convention on international standards for housemaids, which was scheduled to be endorsed at an international labor conference in Geneva in 2011.

"This is a strong indication that the government has no political will to protect workers in the domestic sector and holds no bargaining power to pressure other countries into provide protection for Indonesian migrant workers," she said.

The government's decision to support a non-binding recommendation on international standards for housemaids was discussed at a recent meeting between the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry and other relevant ministries, including the Home Ministry, Health Ministry, National Development and Planning Board (Bappenas) and the Foreign Ministry.

The ILO office in Jakarta, in cooperation with civil society groups, drafted a bill which deals specifically with the protection of housemaids and gave it to the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry. The Ministry, for unspecified reasons, has been reluctant to forward it to the House of Representatives for further deliberation.

The bill outlines minimum wages for housemaids, working hours, extra-hour payments, days off and annual vacation.  

"This is a strong indication that the government has no political will to protect workers in the domestic sector and holds no bargaining power to pressure other countries into provide protection for Indonesian migrant workers,"