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Lawmakers drag feet on domestic workers bill

Jakarta Post - October 8, 2016

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Moses Ompusunggu, Jakarta – There is only a slim chance that domestic workers in the country will be free from various kinds of mistreatment if there is no legal umbrella to improve their protection, labor activists have said.

The Coalition for Protection of Domestic and Migrant Workers (KA-PPRTBM) said both the government and the House of Representatives had made initiatives to provide regulations to safeguard domestic workers nationwide, but moves were lacking to make their commitments a reality.

KA-PPRTBM secretary general Agus Toniman said it had been five years since then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland, that Indonesia would support the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 189 on decent work for domestic workers. There had been no concrete action to ratify it so far.

Meanwhile, little progress has been made since the House listed a domestic worker protection bill in the National Legislation Program in 2004. Recently, lawmakers decided to drop the bill from its 2015-2019 priority at the 11th hour, Agus said.

"It is important to create a legal umbrella to protect domestic workers, before going into details, such as how to set out their salary standard," Agus said during a visit to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

According to the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT), more than 10.7 million domestic workers in Indonesia need a law that stipulates their rights and entitlements.

KA-PPRTBM vice secretary-general Siti Nurrohmah said the country was in dire need of having a specific law on protection for domestic workers, as their rights and entitlements were not regulated in the 2003 Labor Law due to their status as informal laborers.

The KA-PPRTBM recorded at least six problems that have worsened conditions for domestic workers: employers' refusal to pay worker salaries, the absence of a written working agreement, unlimited work hours, lack of holidays, human trafficking and sexual abuse.

In the 2016 Global Slavery Index, Indonesia ranks 39th with nearly 0.3 percent of people, equal to around 736,000 individuals from its population of 252 million people, trapped in slavery.

Jala PRT data showed there were 408 cases of domestic workers' mistreatment nationwide last year. During the first five months of the year, this figure amounted to 170 cases.

Recently, United Development Party (PPP) politician Fanny Safriansyah aka Ivan Haz, the son of former vice president Hamzah Haz, made headlines for allegedly abusing a 20-year-old domestic worker. The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced Fanny, who had been dismissed from his position as a House legislator following the case, to one year and six months behind bars.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/08/lawmakers-drag-feet-domestic-workers-bill.html .