Workers who are still considered as ‘housemaids’

"Knock... knock...," someone was heard knocking the door. At a glimpse, the clock on the wall showed that it was 11 p.m. It was late at night. "Marokah, wake up, please,” a woman called her from behind a wooden wall. The call was soft, but startled her. “Yes, Mam,” she immediately answered.

Marokah, 25, was still difficult to open her eyes. But, she forced to move her body around. She quickly got off of her bed. Staggering, she opened the door of her bedroom. The woman had been waiting for her. “Ade wants some milk. Please make some,” she ordered her.

Marokah only replied with a nod. She immediately went into the kitchen. Her face bowed down. Her hand still rubbed her eyes. She talked to herself, being more determined, that this was the risk of being a “housemaid”, although sometimes, she desperately grumbled over her profession.

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 calls, Marokah has to wake up to prepare breakfast.

"I have no time to rest,” the woman complained in her Javanese dialect.

Fortunately, she still receives a proper salary from her employer. Marokah earns at least Rp2 million a month to work as a domestic worker. So far, her employer has never been late in paying her salary. That is the reason why she still keeps working for the employer in Depok, West Java, for almost a year.

She left her hometown in Semarang, Central Java, in 2009 to Jakarta to work as a domestic worker. Marokah has changed employers for four times. The reason was always similar – working hours and working burden. She only had once a problem related to a salary payment.

"That was when I worked in Pasar Minggu. My employer once delayed the payment of my salary,” Marokah said.

When she asked her employer about her salary, they only answered “later.” Getting bored with the reason, after her salary had been paid, Marokah left. She moved to a house in Tebet, Tangerang, before moving to Depok. Her job as domestic worker has never brought her any comfort.

“I am now paid well. But, because the working burden is heavy, the salary is still not enough,” she said.

Marokah recalled her other problems during her time to be domestic worker. When she worked in Tebet, Tangerang and Pasar Minggu, she had never received any wage more than Rp. 900,000, while the working burden was heavy and she hardly had any chance to take a breath. Her monthly wage and time to take a rest were not balanced.
Similar to Marokah, Murtini, a 34-year-old domestic worker from Yogyakarta, once experienced how exhausted she was when working as a domestic worker in Jakarta. She worked as domestic worker for the first time in 1997 in Rawamangun area. She got an offer from a domestic worker agent, being promised to earn Rp. 100,000 a month.

In fact, her salary was only Rp. 50,000. Her employer did not treat her well either. She was not allowed to go out of home. She slept in a bedroom, which also functioned as a warehouse. She worked from morning to midnight. She even did male works, such as washing car, only for a limited amount of salary.

"Moreover, I had never been able to get permission to go to my hometown. I could only go when I was sick,” Murti said.

She only survived for seven months in Jakarta. Unable to stand for such a bad treatment, she went back to her hometown. She works again as domestic worker there, but she feels comfortable with the working culture of the Yogyakarta people. That is why she is able to work for a long time with the same employer.

“Now, I work under a contract system,” she said.

Murti is an example of an ideal domestic worker. She joined into the Congress of Yogyakarta Domestic Worker Organizations (KOY). Based on her experience in Jakarta, Murti does not want to return into a tiring cycle of a 'housemaid'. She always carries a written agreement letter as her working contract.

In the letter, she demands a wage guarantee that is in accordance to the standards of a regional domestic worker, social security scheme and national health insurance. In addition to that, the contract also stipulates Murti’s working hours, proper accommodation facilities at her employer’s house and her rights to be off during weekends and annual leave.

The woman, who holds a position as KOY deputy chairman, also has spare time to take care of her organization. She attends meetings or gatherings with other domestic workers at night because her working hours end in the afternoon. She is usually off-duty on Sundays.

According to Murti, most of employers are willing to accept such conditions. Non-governmental organization Rumpun Tjoet Nyak Dien frequently mediates working relationships between domestic workers and their employers. Some domestic workers also often visit the organization to ask for help in defending their rights.

"So, when a domestic worker expresses objection to a working agreement with her employer, she asks for help from Rumpun Tjoet Nyak Dien to mediate,” Murti said.

Unfortunately, only a few domestic workers are aware of their rights. They still feel afraid if their employers will be reluctant to employ them due to such demands, while the reality speaks differently. The employers, instead, think that they are more professional.

Ida Ruwaida Noor, sociologist at the University of Indonesia (UI), explained that regulations, or working contracts at least, are necessary to regulate the problem in stipulating the rights and obligations of a domestic worker, as well as commitments of an employer to employ the domestic worker.

Currently, in major cities like Jakarta, the relationship between a domestic worker and her employer is not only a social, but also an economic one, unlike in several regions that still keeps a kinship. “Such a condition can usually be found in rural areas,” Ida said.
Employing a domestic worker based on social relationship makes some employers not pay any monthly salary. They just invite their neighbors, relatives or family members to help doing domestic works with a guarantee that they can get accommodation facilities, meals or have their tuition fee paid.

Such kind of thing, according to Ida, only happens in rural areas, while in urban areas, the situation tends to be rational. It means that an employer recruits a domestic worker who is not his or her closest person. So, the way of thinking needs to be changed – from social to economic relationship. They do not only help, but work.

"The domestic worker, however, is required to be competent and have special qualifications, not an unskilled domestic worker, who can do nothing and leave her employer after only working for several days,” she said.

There are actually many employers who have not been aware if the existence of a domestic worker carries economic impacts. For a career family who has children, whether they like it or not, they must pay until millions of rupiah a day to a children day care, while if they hire a domestic worker, they do not spend a lot of money.

She stressed, however, it does not mean that a domestic worker can be given a lot of works without any proper wage. As an employer, Ida expressed her supports for a domestic worker to have salary standards. It does not mean that the salary should follow that of formal workers, but they should have their own minimum wage. And the draft law can be the umbrella of the regulations.

"The draft law does deliberate it in general, but there will also be regional bylaws. That must be adjusted,” she added.

After an official regulation is adopted, the agreement between the domestic worker and her employer must still be necessarily made regarding day-offs, annual leave, working hours and social security guarantee. They must sit together to discuss it. Such conditions cannot be generalized.

"We have various types of employers. Some have big houses, others have small ones. Some have children, others do not have any. All of the conditions must be discussed since the very beginning to reach a deal,” she said.

Totok Daryanto, deputy chairman of the Legislation Body at the House of Representatives, had a different view. He said that it would be better if no legislation is made to deal with domestic workers’ issues. Let it work under the current system, he said, but there should be a call on employers to treat their domestic workers more humanely, because if the matter is regulated, there is question on how to classify between domestic workers with economic and social relationship.

According to him, there should be differences between the two types of domestic workers as long as they still deal with household matters. The academic studies of the draft law, he said, are still ambiguous.

“If the relationship with domestic workers are considered to be a working one and it must also be applied on domestic workers with social relationship, there will be a problem in the future,” Totok said.

This article is the first in-depth article on rights of domestic workers from a series of three in-depth articles by Andi Mohammad Ikhbal of Republika and published on 19 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.