“We need to expose homeworkers’ issues”

Fransisco Bangun is one of the 22 participants of a study tour to Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a membership-based organization, in Ahmedabad, India. He was inspired and impressed by SEWA, which brought many positive changes to the lives of self-employed and home-based women workers as a result of strategic advocacy over the last 4 decades.

Feature | 15 December 2014
Fransisco Bangun
Fransisco Bangun, Head of Protection and Employment Division, Manpower and Transmigration Office of North Sumatera Province, is one of the 22 participants of a study tour to Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a membership-based organization, in Ahmedabad, India, organized by the ILO-MAMPU Project in collaboration with SEWA from 16 to 25 September 2014. ILO-MAMPU is a project aiming to improve women’s access to employment and decent work in Indonesia, funded by the Government of Australia.

Bangun was inspired and impressed by SEWA, which brought many positive changes to the lives of self-employed and home-based women workers as a result of strategic advocacy over the last four decades. The organization now has almost two million members and provides links and services to its members on skills training, housing, insurance, radio, scientific journals and global network, among others. The organization also offers legal support to its members facing legal issues in their work. 

He realizes that homeworkers in Indonesia are unrecognized, scattered and not organized, a contrast to what he saw in India. It is in his opinion that getting homeworkers organized will bring strong advantage in recognizing their existence and advocating for their rights as workers. First and foremost, however, is to expose homeworkers and homeworkers’ issues. “To be honest, homeworkers’ issues are currently not a priority (of the government), but (looking at their working conditions) we need to ‘blow-up’ the issues. We really need to inform people about this,” he persisted.

He learned about the existence of homeworkers only after being introduced and involved in the ILO-MAMPU Project in 2013. Homeworkers are precarious, vulnerable and marginalized workers. The definition of homeworkers in ILO Convention No. 177 embraces the three common elements of an employment relationship under Indonesian labour law: defined work, remuneration and a degree of subordination. However, homeworkers are not recognized or explicitly defined by national laws or regulations, leaving them with no legal and social protection in Indonesia.

He expressed the commitment of the Manpower and Transmigration Office of North Sumatera to acknowledge and protect homeworkers by developing a local regulation, which would take around 3 years until 2018. In absence of national laws for homeworkers, he realized that developing local regulation was possible. “Take an example of the Local Regulation No.5/2004 of North Sumatera Province that acknowledges the Worst Forms of Child Labour and bans the practice. We issued this a few years before the national law, with technical assistance and support from the ILO.”

Bangun continued with how developing a local regulation for homeworkers can be achieved. “Homework is in the informal economy. If the local government can issue a regulation related to the informal economy, homework could and should be included. This looks more feasible. Aceh province, for example, has a local regulation for the informal sector,” he explained. He further expressed, “We need data on homeworkers and homeworkers’ issues. We foresee that data gathering will be the focus in 2015. We then bring these data to the parliament as our basis. We also need ILO expertise and technical assistance during the process, as was the case with the child labour regulation."

Bangun closed his testimonial by expressing that many obstacles are to be expected, but highlighting that homeworkers will be recognized if the government, employers, workers and other stakeholders are committed.


“To be honest, homeworkers’ issues are currently not a priority (of the government), but (looking at their working conditions) we need to ‘blow-up’ the issues. We really need to inform people about this.”