All news: domestic workers

Labour Migration

Resource guides for Ukrainian Migrant Domestic Workers

Hands-on resource guides have been created for Ukrainian domestic workers emigrating to Poland with readily accessible information on labour rights in their host country.

Launch of My Fair Home campaign targets domestic workers' employers to improve working conditions

The ILO launched the ‘My Fair Home’ campaign to encourage employers to personally take the My Fair Home pledge to uphold the rights of domestic workers in their own homes.

Being child domestic worker, Yantri’s careless choice

Yantri Yohana Lau flew from Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, to Jakarta in mid-July. Yantri was then still 18 years old.

Being domestic workers, way-out for countryside girls to avoid marriage

Sixteen-year-old girl Atun only bowed down when Siti Fatimah (44) visited her house in the village of Lembupurwa, Mirit District, Kebumen Regency, Central Java. Siti is a broker who mediates future domestic workers and their future employers in...

Stories of child domestic workers hunting for ‘small change’

Finding a child domestic worker under 17 years old is not difficult. Some agents, who are supported by brokers, still provide under-age workers to meet the requests of future employers. These agents are hunting for future child domestic workers...

Child domestic workers in cycle of abuse

In March 2015, the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) and the National Advocacy Network for Domestic Workers (Jala PRT) provided advocacy to Umirotun (23 years old) to report her agent to the Greater Jakarta Metropolitan Police.

Never escaping from modern slavery

The House of Representatives keeps delaying the adoption of the Law on Protection of Domestic Workers. Are they afraid of increasing salary of domestic workers?

Without contracts, domestic workers’ rights unprotected

The condition of domestic workers who have written contracts with their employers is much better than those who do not have ones. Unfortunately, not all domestic workers can be protected by written contracts due to the lack of the government’s...

Lack of OSH protection for domestic workers (2)

The occupational health and safety (OSH) for domestic workers is actually regulated in the Law on Protection of Domestic Workers. Unfortunately, the draft legislation has been stalled for 10 years under the desk of the House of Representatives....

Lita Anggraeni: Our life and death is for the Law on Protection of Domestic Workers

A morning at the Pakubuwono Apartment, South Jakarta. Dozens of women were lining up in front of the main gate of the apartment. They were domestic workers.

Lack of OSH protection for domestic workers

Some professions have already known the term of OSH, Occupational Health and Safety. But it is not the case of domestic workers. Let alone OSH, even a law about them has not been included into the National Legislative Program after being submitted...

Sunarti: My hands blister when washing clothes

A morning at the Pakubuwono Apartment, South Jakarta. Dozens of women were lining up in front of the main gate of the apartment. They were domestic workers.

No maximum efforts yet to protect domestic workers

That afternoon, the sun was burning. The bandanna covering some of her hair looked wet. Sweat was profusely dripping on the temples of her eyes. By her hand, she was swiping sweat from pores on her face. The woman did not care to get burned under...

House 'ping-pongs' the Draft Law on Domestic Workers

The man was sitting, leaning back at the terrace of his house. Sipping a cup of coffee, he gazed up at the reddish twilight sky. His eyes looked empty. But his mind was jumping back into a period in the past. His lips were flaring up. He smiled. His...

National Child Protection Commission: Urgent, the abolition of child domestic workers

Eneng was only 11 years old when she started working as a child domestic worker. Economic reasons had forced Eneng, the third of seven children in her family, to answer an offer from a friend in her village to be a domestic worker in Jakarta.

Workers who are still considered as ‘housemaids’

It was not once or twice that she has to be awake at midnight to take care of her employer’s child who is still under five years old, whether to just prepare some milk, serve food or cradle the child when crying, while before the pre-dawn prayer...

Steep road of Draft Law on Protection of Domestic Workers

The Draft Law on Protection of Domestic Workers was submitted more than 10 years ago to the House of Representatives. Along the period, the legal umbrella for domestic workers have been in limbo.

When domestic workers united in trade union (Part 2)

Sapulidi means that in unity, we are strong. Sapulidi is also a symbol of domestic workers’ working equipment.

When domestic workers united in trade union

Trade union for domestic workers (SPRT) Tunas Mulia was born to inspire domestic workers to set up a trade union and fight for their rights as workers.

Human trafficking

Labour migration: The dark side of the coin

A new ILO study exposes the pitfalls of labour migration for women domestic workers both within India and abroad and provides policy-makers and service providers with deeper insight into the nature of forced labour and trafficking in the region.