Indonesia is the largest democracy in the world without a law to protect its domestic workers. That might be about to change, with a bill that also paves the way to better rights for millions of Indonesians in places such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
However, at home, many domestic employees could miss out on the law’s protections completely.
Almost 5 million domestic staff serve as the invisible backbone of Southeast Asia’s largest economy, looking after the upper middle class and the wealthy, but they are often physically and socially isolated, leaving them particularly vulnerable to exploitation and assault.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Domestic Workers’ Protection Bill, which Indonesian President Joko Widodo aims to pass this month, gives household employees — three-quarters of whom are women — more of the rights afforded to formal workers.
Without it, “slavery will be much more entrenched in Indonesian mindsets,” said Lita Anggraini, the country’s leading activist on domestic workers’ rights.
She sees the bill as an important protection against the idea that “anything is acceptable for a domestic worker.”
Siti Khotimah, 24, is an example of how bad things can get. She was four months into working for a family in an affluent southern Jakarta neighborhood when her employer chained her, beat her and doused her with boiling water as punishment for a minor theft.
She was then forced to work up to 21 hours a day, her mobile phone was confiscated and her monthly pay was withheld.
Khotimah’s case is an extreme one, and her employers have been charged with domestic violence and deprivation of liberty.
However, household staff have little or no recourse if employers fail to pay the agreed salary or expect round-the-clock service.
For nearly two decades, a bill to protect domestic workers in Indonesia has languished in parliament. Local customs that blur the line between employment and honorable service have been a stumbling block. “Ngenger,” for instance, is a Javanese tradition in which wealthy families take care of poorer relatives’ children. In return, the children carry out household chores.
Many policymakers have expressed concern that the bill would criminalize employers who engage in such practices, which advocates say helps poorer children to climb the social ladder through association with their wealthier relatives.
“In no other country will you find this culture of employing nephews as domestic workers,” said Law and Human Rights Vice Minister Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej. “We have some local cultural practices that differ with other countries, and it’s important to accommodate those.”
Policymakers are usually members of the upper-middle class themselves, Anggraini says, and often have four or five household staff of their own.
“They see themselves more as employers, rather than representatives of the people. So there is a conflict of interest,” she said.
After months of pressure from workers, activists and the president himself, the latest round of discussions about the bill began in late March. Passing the law before he steps down next year would fulfil a campaign promise the president made in 2014.
The bill requires employers and agents to uphold promised wages and working hours, and punishes physical assault with up to eight years’ imprisonment or fines of as much as 125 million rupiah (US$8,518). It also recognizes domestic helpers’ right to training, health insurance and social security.
For the employees it applies to, the bill meets many of the terms of the International Labour Organization Convention on Domestic Workers (ILO).
However, the bill falls short of setting a minimum wage and working age, or capping working hours.
However, there is a concerning loophole: Domestic workers who are hired directly by a household, rather than an employment agency, are not covered by the bill at all.
Direct employees account for about 40 percent of all domestic staff, according to Anggraini.
Lawmakers felt it would be difficult to enforce stringent labor regulations on direct hires given the informal nature of their employment, said Indonesian lawmaker Willy Aditya, who is leading the parliamentary team drafting the bill.
Direct hires must be reported to the local neighborhood head, Aditya said, but their living conditions are dependent on “an approach of mutual help and humanity.”
Still, the bill is a first step to improving protections for domestic workers in Indonesia. As the country’s middle class expands, the number of household staff is expected to grow too. About 500,000 joined the sector between 2008 and 2015, according to the ILO.
New regulations might also become a useful governmental bargaining chip in negotiating better conditions for Indonesians overseas. The nation is one of the world’s biggest sources of domestic staff, with 3.6 million of its citizens employed in wealthier homes around the world, mainly in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and the Middle East.
“We’re sending a message to the world that Indonesian domestic workers get proper protections,” Indonesian Vice Minister Hiariej said.
“We always ask other countries to protect our domestic workers, and to ask that, we need a law ourselves,” he said.
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