When domestic workers united in trade union

As the sun set down, the secretariat of SPRT Tunas Mulia, which is located at a corner of Empu Gandring III alley, Umbulharjo, Yogyakarta, started to get busy. Four women in hijabs were entering the house one by one.

Now, from the room, which is not equipped by chairs and tables, the voices of women getting involved in a discussion with some laughter in between were heard. Ririn Sulastri was among the women who were sitting in a circle. She is chairwoman of SPRT Tunas Mulia.

That afternoon, she spent some time for the gathering at the secretariat of SPRT Tunas Mulia amidst her busy time as domestic worker. “I can only come here after dropping my employer’s child at school,” the big woman said on Tuesday, August 4, 2015, smiling.

Ririn has worked as domestic worker since 1996. The single mother said she works as domestic worker to feed her two children and elderly father.
When she began to work as domestic worker, she only received a salary of Rp. 150,000 a month. The money usually ran out quickly to buy basic commodities and household necessities, because her salary at that time was still under the minimum wage.

Since choosing to work as domestic worker, she has had to accept her low salary and inhuman treatment from her employer. Moreover, she once became the victim of a sexual harassment.
In 2000, Ririn was hired through an agent. She took care of a woman, who was on stroke due to a traffic accident. One day, when she was preparing warm water to wash the woman’s body, the woman’s husband suddenly grabbed her from behind.

The man, who was half-naked, then hugged her. Ririn spontaneously dashed water to his face. She stood up with her face turning to be red in anger. “It was very cheeky,” she said.
After the embarrassing incident, Ririn decided to report it to her agent. But rather than defending her, the agent slandered her.

“Ah, I think it was you who teased him, wasn’t it?” Ririn recalled, repeating the words of the agent’s staff when she lodged her complaint.

Rub salt into the wound. After the incident, Ririn was fired without receiving her salary. Her trust to agents disappeared. The 42-year-old woman finally works as an independent domestic worker.

Two years later, Ririn started to get involved in an organization of domestic workers. She joined into a non-governmental organization named Rumpun Tjoet Nyjak Dien (RTND). RTND was the embryo of SPRT Tunas Mulia.

At SPRT Tunas Mulia, Ririn joins in many discussions with labor activists and other domestic workers. They talk about their own fate in which they still feel discriminated as workers: low wage, vulnerable to violence, sexual violence, verbal violence, exploited working hours and unilateral dismissal.

By getting involved in an organization, Ririn admitted that she has become more confident when signing a working agreement with an employer. “Even now, I provide trainings and advocacy to my friends when they face some problems with their employers,” she said.

At present, she does not fully work for only one employer. She purposely chose to be a freelancer for many employers so she can manage her time and earn more money. From evening to dawn, she takes care of an elderly employer. From dawn to 6 a.m., she works as newspaper girl. After that, she brings her employer’s child to school and buy vegetable to be sold at the school.

“I will have been at home at 4 p.m. I take a rest and help my child to study until dusk or about 8 p.m.,” Ririn told her daily activities.

Moreover, she also receives calls for cleaning up, ironing and cooking. She gives the jobs separate tariffs in accordance to their levels of difficulties. When getting a new job, she does not immediately do it for full time. She usually starts a job by a daily contract system. “It continues like that until I feel that I have chemistry with the family. When I have felt comfortable and gained trust, I fully accept it,” she said.

For members of SPRT Tunas Mulia, a written working contract with an employer is the main key to work professionally, because from there, a domestic worker and an employer can know their rights and obligations clearly and in details.

Ririn, however, admitted that not all members of SPRT Tunas Mulia have already requested for a written working contract when they work for the first time. “Now, all of our members must at least make an agreement on wage and holiday verbally with their employers,” she said.

About Tunas Mulia

SPRT Tunas Mulia is the first trade union for domestic workers in Indonesia. The trade union was even born far before the birth of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention Number 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers in 2011. SPRT Tunas Mulia was established on April 27, 2003.

A year later, it was officially registered at the Yogyakarta Manpower and Transmigration Agency. In the beginning, SPRT Tunas Mulia only had 27 members, but as time went by, more domestic workers joined into the organization.

As of today, SPRT Tunas Mulia has a total of 500 members, who pay monthly contribution of Rp2,000. They are spread in small groups in several regencies, from the city of Yogyakarta to the regencies of Bantul, Sleman, Gunung Kidul and Kulon Progo.

To get a status as worker and be registered as a trade union at the Yogyakarta Manpower Agency are not something easily to do because domestic workers have not had any legal umbrella and not been recognized under the status as workers.

Furthermore, domestic workers are still regarded as identical to the figure of ‘servant’, as a result of feudalism culture having existed in the country since a long time ago. Worse, a legal protection for them in the form of Law on Protection of Domestic Workers faces a tug war to be adopted by the government and the House of Representatives. Until now, its draft law has not been included into the national legislative program.

To get legalized as a trade union, the executives of SPRT Tunas Mulia had to repeatedly held dialogues with the government. They tried to make the government understand that domestic workers have also the rights to set up a trade union and to be officially recognized as workers.

They referred to the Manpower and Transmigration Ministerial Decree No. Kep.16/Men/2001 dated February 15, 2001 on the Procedures to Register a Trade Union as one of the legal umbrellas. By the legal foundation, SPRT Tunas Mulia can later be officially registered as a trade union at the Yogyakarta Province office of the Manpower and Transmigration Agency.

“Exactly, it is registered under the Registration Number 13/SPSB-DIY/04/2004 on April 17, 2004,” SPRT Tunas Mulia Treasurer Jumiyem said.

The status of domestic workers as workers in Yogyakarta was later upheld by the issuance of the Gubernatorial Regulation Number 48 Year 2010. A year later, it was backed by the Yogyakarta Mayor Regulation Number 31 Year 2011. “Both explained about protection for domestic workers,” Jumiyem added.

Structurally, SPRT Tunas Mulia only has two divisions: advocacy and organization. The advocacy division provides advocacy for its members who are facing problems at their workplaces.
After a decade of setting up a trade union, SPRT Tunas Mulia has received various complaints and provided advocacy. “Most of them are civil cases. We have never received any criminal cases that led to legal processes,” Jumiyem added.

The civil cases include right violations regarding wage, facilities and workload, holidays and permit to set up an organization. The cases advocated by PRT Tunas Mulia between the domestic workers and their employers have so far ended peacefully.

Meanwhile, the organization division plays a role to train domestic workers who become its members with various skills. One of them is a skill to negotiate so they have courage when they face problems at their workplaces.

“So, we teach them to speak. We also offer them assistance when they need it, asking them if they want to bring the case to court,” Jumiyem explained.

They gather and chat once a week. The topics of their discussions vary, from the rights of a domestic worker, human rights, gender and reproduction health. Other skills include English lessons and how to operate computer and Internet.

SPRT Tunas Mulia is the first trade union for domestic workers being legally established in Indonesia. The step then has inspired other trade unions for domestic workers not only in Yogyakarta, but also in Indonesia.

Following the step of SPRT Tunas Mulia, the Trade Union of Yogyakarta Operata (Household Organization) Congress (KOY) was established in 2009. KOY currently has 500 members and accommodates 16 domestic worker groups in Yogyakarta. An SPRT called Sapulidi in Jakarta and similar SPRTs in North Sumatra began to be initiated.

Through an official registration at the manpower agency, the status of domestic workers have been indirectly recognized as workers and they have the rights equal to those of workers in other sectors. It has become a starting point for domestic workers to get a legal protection while continuing to push for the adoption of the Draft Law on the Protection of Domestic Workers.*

This article is the first in-depth article on rights of domestic workers from a series of three in-depth articles by Muhammad Irham and Vela Andapita of Varia News and published on 15 August 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.