Never escaping from modern slavery

It was never crossed in Sri Murti’s mind that her first eight months of working as domestic worker had become one of her worst life experiences. “My employer keeps lying to me,” she said last Monday. One of the lies was paying her only half of the salary promised to the 34-year-old woman.

The woman, who has been working as domestic worker for 19 years, was not allowed to go beyond the fence by her employer. Murti was also not allowed to communicate with her family in her hometown. When she was in healthy condition, she slept on a thin mattress in the kitchen, in front of the bathroom and faced the refrigerator. When she was sick, she slept in a dusty storeroom, which was packed with unused stuffs.

She was not even allowed to see doctor. Then, because her health condition was getting worse, after working at the house for eight months, Murti was finally sent to her hometown in Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta.

Lita Anggraini, coordinator for the National Advocacy Network for Domestic Workers (Jala PRT), said that many cases of violence against domestic workers like in the case of Murti have occurred in Indonesia. Lita said that a total of 10.7 million domestic workers in Indonesia and four million Indonesian migrant workers has suffered from human rights violations.

“Domestic workers are ‘sandwiched’ between life situation and indecent jobs. They are vulnerable to various physical, psychological, economic, social violence and even trapped in modern slavery situation,” she said.

On Tuesday, August 18, Lita and his friends staged a rally in front of the House of Representatives building in Senayan. They demanded the adoption of the Law on Protection of Domestic Workers and the ratification of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 189 on Decent Works for Domestic Workers.

“Many people, such as domestic workers, still become the victims of structural and systematic impoverishment due to the lack of legislation for protecting domestic workers, either at the local or national levels,” Lita said.

According to Jala PRT’s record, in 2014, 408 cases of abuse against domestic workers were reported. About 65 percent of them had their salaries unpaid or arbitrarily cut and suffered from physical violence; 37 percent was sexually harassed; and 46 percent was exploited, trafficked, locked up and extorted by their agents. As of July this year, the number of cases of violence experienced by domestic workers reached 318.

Actually, the Draft Law on Protection of Domestic Workers was submitted in 2004 and had been included for several times into the priority list of the National Legislative Program. However, as of today, there has been no signs that it will be passed soon.

Poempida Hidayatullah, member of the House’ Manpower Commission for the 2009 – 2014 period, admitted that there are some obstacles to pass it into the law. Poempida, who was once a member of the Legislation Body during its deliberation, said that other lawmakers expressed worries that a legislation at the level of law would make employers find difficulties to hire domestic workers because their minimum wage would also be regulated.

“One of the lawmakers was afraid that employers will not be able to pay domestic workers because employers come from various backgrounds, including factory workers,” he said.

Moreover, according to Irgan Chairul Mahfiz, member of the House’ Manpower Commission, most of the relationship between domestic workers and employers is not a professional one. Many domestic workers are actually the employers’ family members who want to get free stay (ngenger) at their employers’ house.

“The relationship, which is measured by money and ngenger culture, was one of the reasons why the Legislation Body for the 2009 – 2014 period had requested for the draft law to be revised,” he said.

Irgan admitted that for many lawmakers, the problem of domestic workers should be settled enough by a government regulation, not a law. “Some thought that even now, without any regulation at the level of law, the number of cases between employers and domestic workers is relatively small.”

Akhyar, head of the legislation II of the Law and Organization Bureau at the Ministry of Manpower, said that because a regulation at the same level as a law has not been set up until now, Manpower Minister Hanief Dhakiri issued a regulation in the form of the Ministerial Regulation Number 2 Year 2015 on Protection of Domestic Workers.

Akhyar admitted that a protection regulation at the ministerial level will not be as firm as a law. Many matters included in the regulation must even be solved based on the agreement between employer and domestic worker. “The only definite one is that the age of the domestic worker candidate must be 18 years old at minimum,” he said.

ILO also shared a similar view with Akhyar that a ministerial regulation is not enough. “We surely appreciate the Ministerial Regulation Number 2 Year 2015. But unfortunately, its contents have not comprehensively reflected any protection to domestic workers,” ILO Indonesia’s Capacity Building Officer Muhamad Nour said.

The draft law has not been indeed passed into law. The ILO Convention No. 189 on Decent Works for Domestic Workers has not been ratified, either.

But Murti has started to understand about her rights to get protection. The woman just ended her contract with her last employer. She wants to open a kiosk before finding a new employer. The main requirement she will ask is to make a working contract with her new employer in the future.

“I learned that when attending the ILO Conference in Geneva in 2011. The working contract is for my own protection, too, isn’t it,” the woman, who currently holds a position as deputy chairman of the Congress of Domestic Workers Organization in Yogyakarta, said.

The Journey of the Draft Law on Protection of Domestic Workers, Source: JALA PRT

JALA PRT once submitted the Draft Law on Protection of Domestic Workers in 2004 to be the House’ initiative rights. The draft law was once included into the 2004 – 2009 National Legislative Program, but no deliberation was made during the period. The draft law was submitted again to the House of the 2009 – 2014 period. Through a proposal by the Commission IX, a House plenary session on November 30 November, 2009 decided that the draft law became one of the priorities of the 2010 National Legislative Program.

• May 12, 2011: Commission IX decided to deliberate the Draft Law on Protection of Domestic Workers. They asked the House’ Secretariat General to make an academic paper and a draft law. The Manpower Commission also set up a working committee for deliberating the draft law.
• October 6, 2011: The House’ Secretary General has made and presented the academic paper and the draft law to the House’ Commission IX.
• February 2 - 3, June 22, December 2 – 4, 2012: The working committee on the draft law deliberated it for three times.
• August 27 – 31, 2012: The working committee paid working visits for comparative studies on the draft law to South Africa and Argentina.
• January 17 – 18, 2013, February 20, 2013: The working committee deliberated the draft law.
• February 27, 2013: The working committee paid working visits for public expose in Makassar and Malang.
• March 25, 2013: The House’ Commission IX deliberated the draft law based on the results of the public exposes in Makassar and Malang. The House finalized the draft law to be submitted to the House’ Legislation Body.
• April 2, 2013: By an official letter No. 87/Kom IX/DPR RI/IV/2013 dated April 2, 2013, the House’ Commission IX submitted the draft law to the Legislation Body for being harmonized.
• September 22 – 24, 2014: The deliberation of the draft law was scheduled at the Legislation Body after being revised by the Commission IX. No lawmakers, either from the Legislation Body or the Commission IX, however, appeared.
• January 2015: The Commission IX proposed the draft law to be included into the priority list of the National Legislative Program, but it was rejected.

*Souce: JALA PRT

The comparison between the ILO Convention No. 189, the Ministerial Regulation Number 2 Year 2015 and the Draft Law on Protection of Domestic Workers. *from sources

Points of the ILO Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers

The age of domestic workers shall be over 18 years old. Domestic workers who are under the age of 18 are not deprived of further education or vocational training. Domestic workers and employers shall have working contracts. Domestic workers have the rights to get informed on the full identity of employers Domestic workers have the rights to get informed on the duration of work, the type of work to be performed, the method of remuneration calculation, the paid annual leave, daily and weekly rest periods, the provision of food and accommodation, the period of probation or trial period and the terms of repatriation. Domestic workers shall have their rights protected to join organizations and negotiate with employers. Domestic workers are entitled to keep in their possession their travel and identity document.

Points of the Ministerial Regulation Number 2 Year 2015 on Protection of Domestic Workers

The minimum age of domestic workers is 18 years old. Employers and domestic workers are required to make written or verbal working agreement, containing rights and obligations that should be witnessed by neighboring community head. The working agreement is valid for two years and can be extended or ended in accordance to the agreement. Domestic workers shall receive wage in accordance to the working agreement. Domestic workers shall get enough rest periods, leave based on the agreement and time to perform their religious activities. Employers shall register domestic workers to the social security guarantee scheme. Domestic workers shall receive religious holiday bonus.

Points of the Draft Law on Protection of Domestic Workers, as of March 25, 2013

The minimum age of domestic workers shall be 18 years old. Domestic workers who are under the age of 18 are not deprived of education and are given different types of works. Employers and candidates of domestic workers shall make written and verbal agreements on their respective rights and obligations. The working agreements are informed to heads of the neighborhood community, residential community, village/sub-district, kampong/hamlet. Employers shall inform the candidates of domestic workers on the identities of employers who want to hire domestic workers Domestic workers only do works related to household matters. Full-time domestic workers work for between eight to 12 hours, part-time ones work for a maximum of six working hours. Domestic workers shall earn wage in accordance to the working agreement, religious holiday bonuse, rest periods, health, security and safety guarantee. Domestic workers shall be well and humanely treated. Domestic workers shall be allowed to join trade unions. Domestic workers are entitled to receive trainings in efforts to improve their working quality. Those who are hired based on kinship are excluded from the law.

This article is an in-depth article on rights of domestic workers by Mitra Tarigan of Tempo and published on 1 September 2015. The article is part of the ILO’s media fellowship programme on domestic workers and child domestic labour, jointly conducted in collaboration with the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Jakarta and eight selected leading, national mass media. The media fellowship programme was part of the campaign conducted by the ILO through its Promoting Decent Work for Domestic Workers to End Child Domestic Work (PROMOTE) Project. Funded by the United States Department of Labour (USDOL), PROMOTE Project aims at reducing child domestic workers significantly by building institutional capacities of partners to promote Decent Work for Domestic Workers (DWDW) effectively. The Project works to increase the knowledge, skills and expertise on reducing child domestic workers and promote DWDW.