Sunarti’s face, 35 years old, turned red. The fingers of the woman, who is known as Santi, could not stop of fixing the position of her washed-out blue shirt. She looked nervous to talk to the camera. “This is recorded, isn’t this? My heart is beating. What should I do?”
Santi, a domestic worker, was being recorded for a video footage. The recording process took place at a room of the secretariat of non-governmental organization dealing with domestic workers, the National Network for Advocacy (Jala-PRT), in South Jakarta on Saturday, July 31, 2015. The video will be uploaded into various social media prior to the 70th anniversary of the Indonesian Independence Day.
A few moments after the camera was in the position of recording, the mother of four children began to set her breath. Finally, she started to speak firmly.
“After Indonesia gained independence 70 years ago, we, domestic workers, have not fully enjoyed our independence. Our profession has never been recognized by the state,” Santi said.
Based on the Jala-PRT record, the current average wage of domestic workers in Jakarta is only Rp1.3 million a month or almost half of the minimum wage, while the working hours of a domestic worker are very flexible, can be over eight hours, without any compensation. On the other side, most of domestic workers do not get the rights for annual leave and day-offs during weekends, religious holiday bonus and social security guarantee.
So far, the condition of a domestic worker profession has not been equal to professions in other sectors. Domestic workers have no legal protection. That is the reason why domestic workers are vulnerable to physical violence, verbal violence, intimidation, sexual harassment and working hour exploitation.
The protection to domestic workers refers to the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention Number 189 adopted in 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland. The ILO Convention Number 189 is a legal reference for all countries in the world that ratified it to guarantee that domestic workers receive working condition equal to the one enjoyed by workers in other sectors.
In Indonesia, the Draft Law on Protection of Domestic Workers once became a priority to be adopted in 2015. The draft law, however, was later dropped from the list of the 2015 National Legislative Program.
It was promised that the draft law will be tried to be immediately adopted this year. The domestic workers, however, do not want to do nothing and will “make their own umbrella”, because without legal protection, they can be treated at the employers’ will: being unilaterally fired, the salary is not paid in accordance to the agreement or being asked to work without holidays or leave.
The most possible way to be done at the moment is to set up a trade union. Domestic workers joining into an organization can fight for their rights together when they face the arbitrariness of their employers.
Sapulidi Trade Union
Santi once received bad treatment from her employer. It was early January 2015. She worked at Kemang Village area, South Jakarta. She was told to clean up crust in the toilet by hand, without any brush. But Santi fought back.
“It’s improper to clean up a toilet by hand. A brush should be used. So, I told him, I’m indeed a domestic worker, Sir, but I also have a dignity,” she said. She then decided to resign.
Santi expressed belief that if such an incident occurs to other domestic workers, they may not be able to take a similar action, because domestic workers frequently accept what their employers order to them. “Through the organization, I’ve learned to stand on my own, such as rejecting any job without adequate facilities and equipment,” she added.
Santi, who has been working as domestic worker since 2009, is chairwoman of the Sapulidi trade union for domestic workers. Sapulidi was established on June 16, 2013 as the embryo of trade unions protecting domestic workers in Jakarta and its surrounding areas.
Sapulidi was established following an assistance and solidarity for a domestic worker named Fitria. In mid-April, 2013, Fitria, who worked at an elite area in Fatmawati, South Jakarta, had some conflict with her employer.
At that time, she was ordered to work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Because she did not want to be treated like that, she decided to quit. Her salary for two weeks, however, was not paid. Finally, she wrote about her experience in her personal blog. The article received a lot of responses from the people and she came to Jala-PRT.
After meeting and consulting with JALA PRT, Fitria received some guidance to bring her case to court. Assisted by the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation, Fitria filed a letter of complaint to her boss.
However, less than two weeks after the letter was sent, the employer ‘trembled’ and decided to settle the dispute peacefully. He paid off the two-week salary he had not paid to Fitria.
The success story of a domestic worker in fighting for justice became the topic of discussion among domestic workers. After her case was settled, facilitated by Jala-PRT, Fitria gathered her friends of the same profession.
In mid-June 2013, Santi and her friends gathered at Fitria’s rented house. In a room sized not more than four square meters, they shared their bad experiences as domestic workers.
“I told them that in my first job, my salary was once unpaid for a month, while the salary, which was Rp650,000 a month, was very much needed by my family and I,” Santi said, recalling the meeting at Fitria’s rented house.
During the same occasion, Wina, Santi’s friend of the same profession who joined in the gathering, had a bad experience as domestic worker. “I also shared my experience. I was once accused of stealing drinking water by my employer. I was also once locked from morning until evening and starving in the apartment where I worked,” she said.
Jala-PRT Coordinator Lita Anggraini took a note of the complaints on a card-board. According to Lita, the bad treatment received by the domestic workers was only an iceberg’s escalating phenomenon.
Cases of violence against domestic workers will only be under the spotlight when the victims suffer from sexual or physical abuses that cause them permanently paralyzed or dead. Therefore, Lita added, one of the battles for domestic workers to win over justice at workplace can be started from the establishment of associations or organizations. “After the meeting at Fitria’s house, we continued it to a bigger meeting in Ragunan, South Jakarta,” Lita said.
In late June 2013, 35 domestic workers gathered in Ragunan. The event themed “Picnic in Ragunan” produced an agreement among domestic workers to set up an organization for domestic workers. The vision, mission and structure of the organization were also formed at that time.
“From several names nominated for the organization, the domestic workers finally agreed to use the name of Sapulidi. Sapulidi means that we are strong in unity. Sapulidi is also a symbol of working tool for domestic workers,” Lita added.
Moreover, they agreed that the birth day of Sapulidi was June 16, 2015. The date was selected because June 16 is the International Domestic Workers’ Day.
“The ILO Convention Number 189 was adopted on June 16, 2011 and since then, June 16 has become the International Domestic Workers’ Day,” Lita added.
Getting Massive
The members of Sapulidi are getting bigger as the struggle to deal with conflicts between domestic workers and employers continues. Sapulidi currently has more than 100 members of domestic workers. They have routinely paid membership fee, which is Rp10,000 a month each.
The last case handled by Sapulidi was a report filed by a domestic workers working in Pondok Indah area, South Jakarta. The domestic worker was blacklisted by her employer for allegedly stealing. She was also not paid.
Sapulidi then provided advocacy for the case. After the case was processed, the domestic worker was not found stealing. The employer had to pay the unpaid wage and rehabilitate her name so she could easily work at other places without any bad records.
Santi admitted that Sapulidi had dealt with various kinds of cases related to the conflicts between domestic workers and employers. Unfortunately, Santi said that her union has not recorded the cases well. “We admitted that until now, we have not recorded the cases. But in the future, we will do the administrative things,” she said.
It is not only advocacy for conflicts that become an attractive power of Sapulidi. To attract more domestic workers to join, Sapulidi also aggressively provides information on vacancies for domestic workers and English lesson class.
As of today, 80 Sapulidi members have been recorded of having already had certificates from a prominent English-language school. “We have also designed a working safety training for domestic workers,” Santi added.
The obstacles currently still faced by her organization, Santi said, are tight working hours and administrative records for cases being handled. However, it will not hamper a plan by Sapulidi to get registered at the Jakarta Manpower Agency on February 16, 2016.
The date to register Sapulidi as a trade union was selected because February 16 is the National Domestic Workers’ Day. As reported, in February 2001, a domestic worker named Sunarsih was tortured to death by her employer. Sunarsih, who was 14 years old, was accused of stealing six rambutans and her employer thought she had deserved to be tortured.
“The establishment of Sapulidi will be a momentum to remember important days for domestic workers,” Santi said.
While fighting to get a legal umbrella through the Draft Law on Protection of Domestic Workers, the domestic workers are now also doing their war through trade unions. This is a form of awareness of domestic workers to be in a position equal to workers in other sectors that needs to get appreciation from the community.
Points of the ILO Convention No. 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers
The age of domestic workers is suggested to be above 18 years old.
Domestic workers who are under the age of 18 and above the minimum age of employment should not be deprived of further education or vocational training.
Domestic workers shall have the rights to be informed on the full identity of their employers.
Domestic workers shall have the rights to be informed on the duration of work, the type of work to be performed, the method of payment, the paid annual leave, the daily and weekly rest periods, the provision of food and accommodation, the period of probation and the terms of repatriation.
Domestic workers shall have the rights to join organizations and the rights to collective bargaining with their employers.
Domestic workers are entitled to keep in their possession their travel and identity documents.
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This article is the second 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.
