Without contracts, domestic workers’ rights unprotected

Ludiah (35 years old) could not forget what she had experienced 22 years ago. She was still 13 years old. A middle-aged man, a son of her neighbor in her village in Wonosobo, Central Java, offered Diah, her nickname, who was still at the first grade of the junior high school, to work for him as domestic worker. "He brought me to Madiun, promising that I would earn a big salary and could bring home a lot of money,” Diah said.

Without saying anything to her parents, Diah, who had not been adult enough, immediately followed the man to Madiun. In Madiun, Diah worked for four months. She had to do all household works there, from cooking, washing, sweeping and taking care of her employer’s two children who still went to kindergarten. With such a lot of workload, Diah had to work for long hours. She had to wake up early at 4 p.m. and go to bed at 11 p.m. or midnight.

For all of those works, Diah was only paid Rp. 55,000 a month, a very indecent wage for a domestic worker at that time.

Besides inadequate working condition, Diah also received bad treatment from the employer and her children. "When ordering something, she threw an Aqua bottle at me. Her children were also naughty. They used their legs when asking me to do something. They also trampled upon my head,” Diah recalled her past.

Long working hours with heavy workload, low wage and bad treatment by her employer and their family made Diah felt uncomfortable to stay and work any longer. Prior to Eid al-Fitr holiday, Diah said that she wanted to go back to her hometown. However, the request of the woman, who is now mother of two children, to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with her family was rejected by her employer. The employer was worried if Diah did not come back after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Because Diah insisted to go to her hometown, her employer finally allowed her to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with her family in Wonosobo with a condition that she was not allowed to bring home her clothes and other personal belongings. "They didn’t even allow me to bring home Eid al-Fitr clothes they had bought for me,” she recalled.

Diah finally returned to her parents’ home in Wonosobo. Since then, she never came back to her employer’s house. Her employer once came from Madiun to pick Diah up. She was reluctant to go back, giving a reason that she had to cure ulceration on her leg.

Diah’s working condition was not different from that of her friends, other domestic workers without contracts. She said that her friend, another domestic worker, had been verbally promised that she would only iron clothes and cook with salary of Rp. 500,000 a month. In reality, however, the friend has to do all kinds of household works, from washing, shopping, cooking, cleaning up the house and taking care of children. "Her employer can only give her orders. She once said that my friend would only work for two hours, but now, she actually works for the whole day,” she revealed.

Domestic workers with contracts

Ririn Sulastri (41 years old) from Yogyakarta has a different experience. Ririn worked as a caregiver for an elderly couple of a family in Mrican area, Yogyakarta. Eleven years ago, when being asked to take care of the couple, Ririn submitted a condition -- a written contract.

At first, the family of Eyang Kakung and Eyang Putri – the way Ririn calls the couple – was stunned by the request. "But I tried to make them understand it. When speaking over the phone and during a meeting, I explained to them that the contract would not be only binding, but if the family didn’t feel comfortable with me, the contract could be dropped. It would also be applied to me if I didn’t feel comfortable,” she said.

Following a negotiation, Ririn, the elderly couple’s family and trade union for domestic workers Tunas Mulia, an organization where Ririn is a member, agreed to sign an official working contract. In the contract, Ririn acts as the first party who is employed, the family as the employer and the trade union as witness.

The contract regulates the rights and obligations of each party, including the obligation of the first party to take care of the elderly couple from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. The job description was to take care of the elderly couple she called Eyang Kakung and Eyang Putri. Eyang Kakung has now already passed away and Ririn only takes care of Eyang Putri who has been 86 years old. Late Eyang Kakung and Eyang Putri has five children who have successfully worked as lecturer, businessmen and government officials.

Besides arranging her time to take a rest and accompany Eyang Putri, Ririn also pays attention on her diet, determining which food the elderly woman, who has heart problems, can and cannot consume. "I also do some physiotherapy for Eyang and give her some herbal medicine if Eyang Putri gets a fever,” she told her story.

Providing details of job description in the contract is important. Unless, Ririn said, she could be asked to do all types of household works without exception, from cooking, washing, sweeping etc.

For her service, Ririn receives a salary of Rp. 1.8 million a month, excluding transportation allowance of Rp. 150,000 a month and meal allowance of Rp. 7,000 a day. In a month, she can bring home a total of Rp. 2,160,000. The wage is big enough as the minimum wage in Sleman Regency is only Rp. 1.2 million.

Urgency of Law on Domestic Workers

In fact, there has been no international legal instrument that requires the arrangement of obligations and protection for the rights of domestic workers in written contracts. Muhamad Nour, capacity building officer of the International Labor Organization, said that Article 7 of the ILO Convention No. 189 Year 2011 on Domestic Workers stipulates that each member shall take measures to ensure that domestic workers are informed of their terms and conditions of employment in an appropriate, verifiable and easily understandable manner and preferably, where possible, through written contracts in accordance with national laws, regulations or collective agreements.

The written contracts shall contain the name and address of the employer and of the worker, the address of the usual workplace or workplaces, the starting date and its duration, the type of work to be performed, the remuneration, method of calculation and periodicity of payments, the normal hours of work, paid annual leave, and daily and weekly rest periods, the provision of food and accommodation, the period of probation or trial period, the terms of repatriation and terms and conditions relating to the termination of employment, including any period of notice by either the domestic worker or the employer.

Mudji Handaya, acting Director General of Labour Inspection of the Ministry of Manpower, said, however, that the government still faces some problems in formalizing the working relations between domestic workers and employers in the form of written contracts stipulated by the law, because the majority of Indonesian people have not recognized domestic worker as a profession.

A formal contract between a domestic worker and an employer will create a rigid and standard regulation, because when a conflict occurs or when the contract is over, the domestic worker can be immediately fired, while the job of domestic worker is an informal sector that has become a social security net. “Don’t make us trapped in a formality, which is a European and American culture,” he said.

In the Indonesian culture, the job of domestic worker is still based on kinship. Sometimes, the domestic worker is a child who is provided accommodation, meal and education by a relative, a culture frequently called "ngenger". Furthermore, there is still a practice of slavery in the Indonesian community’s feudal tradition, from Aceh, Java to Papua. It makes the process of formalization of the job of domestic worker difficult.

"Not all of the Indonesian culture is bad. Slavery is the root of culture. If the profession of domestic worker is formalized, the community will feel to be forced to do it," he concluded.

This article is an in-depth article on rights of domestic workers by Agustinus Beo Da Costa of Kontan Daily and published on 28 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.