How struggling are Domestic Workers (DWs) in Indonesia?

In 2004, there was a woman named Sunarsih, a 14-year-old girl who worked as a domestic worker in Surabaya, Indonesia. She ate only a package of instant noodles a day, had no day off, slept on the upper floor where clothes were usually hung to get them dry. One day she was starving and took some rice from the kitchen. It was a bad day for her as her employer found it out. She got beaten and her neck was tied at the staircase until finally, she died on Feb 12th. The worst thing is that her family didn't even know about it. How could anyone know? she could not even talk to her family. She was blocked from the outside world by her employer. What an inhumane person her employer was! Her death was uncovered on Feb 15th and since then this day became the National Domestic Worker's Day to commemorate her death. 

And guess what? What happened to Sunarsih didn't stop there. There are still many other DWs in Indonesia, including those who work abroad, experiencing abuses and exploitations by their employers. Some of them may be fortunate to be employed by a generous and kind employer. But, shall we rely on 'fortune' here? I don't think so. What is still happening out there to DWs is that they work for long hours. It is like they must be ready 24 hours at anytime their employer needs them to do anything. They start their work as soon as they wake up and only stop when they get to bed late at night. What a pity situation they are having! Worse than that, they have no weekly rest or let's say day-offs. Then, we can tell that they work 24/7. And, what about the salary? no specific rule which regulates how much their minimum salary is so that the employer can pay them as much as they want to give as long as the DWs say yes. Anyway, who would say 'no', most of them come from poor families with a low level of education, what more to expect than some money to support their family. These are not all, there still have been many cases and stories in which DWs face a number of abuses mentally, physically (just like what happened to Sunarsih), sexually, and economically (what I mentioned about salary). From all of these, we can see that, DWs do not get their rights as workers, are not even recognized and treated as workers. Is this what we call slavery in this modern era? 

I am amazed for knowing that there are many activists working together with some NGOs to fight for the rights of DWs. What they want is simply that they do not want other DWs to become another 'Sunarsih'. There are around 4 million DWs in Indonesia (the biggest DWs provider in Asia) and more than 80% of them are women, even in some cases some children under 18 are also employed. One of the big efforts that they have done is by formulating and drafting the Bill of DWs' Protection to be proposed to the Parliament to be enacted. In addition, there have been a lot of campaigns held to support the ratification of ILO (International Labour Organization) Convention - 189. What about now? Is there any progress? Sadly not at all. Even though the Bill was ready in 2004, the changing of government period every five years have a big impact on its' process to be passed. Can you believe it? It has been 17 years. In addition, it seems there have been some conflicts of interest in the Parliament to enact this law. One of the concerns in this issue is that, since it is mentioned in the Bill that the government must provide social security for the DWs, it means the government must spend pay for its expenses which results in an increasing national budget. Anyway, to fill this gap, Indonesia's Ministry of Labour launched Ministerial Regulations to at least provide some protections for DWs and to minimize any abuses, violations, and exploitations by the employers. It starts by providing the definition of DW along with the requirements and job descriptions. But still, it is not strong enough. Also, the implementation of these regulations is still not well done by respective stakeholders. In other words, it is questioning.

I am very proud of the Phillippines which has done a great job in protecting their citizens who work as DWs in their country as well as those who work abroad with laws namely Batas Kasambahay. In addition, the Philippines ratified ILO C-189 which covers the labor standards of decent work for DWs in 2012. The existence of this law has been beneficial not only for DWs as workers but also for employers.

Now, the question is how much longer must DWs wait? Hopefully, we hear good news in March from the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas) in the Parliament. 

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Two days ago, Monday, February 15th, 2021, I was invited to be an interpreter (from Bahasa Indonesia to English) at an online event Webinar on Cross-border Exchange: Paving the Way to Decent Work for Domestic Workers in Indonesia and Phillippines. This event was held by the International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF) in collaboration with JALA-PRT (National Network for DWs' Advocacy) and UNITED (a National Union of DWs in the Phillippines) to commemorate the National Domestic Worker's Day in Indonesia. The speakers of the event representing NGOs and government from Indonesia such as Tunas Mulia DW Union, Indonesian Women Congress (KOWANI), Golkar Party, Nasdem Party, Maju Perempuan Indonesia, and from the Phillippines such as Congressman of the Philippines, DOLE (Department of Labour and Employment) of the Phillippines, and ILO Geneva.