Latifah was 14 years old when she dropped out of school
and started working as a nanny in West Java — but, like many Indonesian
domestic workers, she found herself trapped in an abusive environment with
minimal legal protection.
Her male
employer not only sexually harassed her, but also kept her from
communicating with the outside world. He would expose himself to her when
his wife was not around, forbid her from using a mobile phone, and
sometimes enter her room at night when she was sleeping.
“I woke up and
felt afraid. I didn’t tell his wife about the situation as I was afraid she
would not believe me. Finally, I took a phone from one of the family’s
older children and called the recruitment agency. I asked them to take us
back … I didn’t want to work for this employer any longer.”
On Feb. 15
Indonesia marks its National Day for Domestic Workers — it is not a day
many will have heard of, but that does not make it any less important.
Latifah’s case is emblematic of the unacceptable daily reality too many
women and girl domestic workers are facing.
There are more
than 52 million domestic workers across the world today — in Asia alone there
are more than 21 million, the highest of any region. These include anyone
working behind the doors of a household — like nannies or cleaners.
Many of these
women and men face the same hardships — poor working conditions, pitiful
salaries and a lack of legal protection that leaves them at the mercy of
employers.
While we often
hear stories about the cruel treatment faced by Indonesian migrant domestic
workers in countries like Malaysia, Singapore or Saudi Arabia, very little
is often reported about the situation in
Indonesia.
Domestic
workers are still not legally recognized as workers here, leaving them in
legal limbo without the same protections and safeguards as the rest of the
labor force. In 2010 there were an estimated 2.4 million domestic workers
in the country, of whom 1.8 million were women. In the absence of a
comprehensive survey, it is likely that this figure is now much higher.
Since 2006,
Amnesty International has been campaigning for Indonesian domestic workers
to be afforded the same legal protection as other workers. We have been
urging the Indonesian legislature to revise the 2003 Manpower Law, or to
urgently pass a law giving adequate legal protection to domestic workers.
Unfortunately, little progress has been made.
Many women and
girl domestic workers still work in desperately poor conditions, where the
lack of legal protection translates into extremely long working hours
without any time for proper rest.
Domestic
workers in Indonesia can work up to 12 hours per day, seven days per week.
Holidays, or even a weekly day off, that we take for granted are unheard of
for some domestic workers.
But this is not
just an issue of workers’ rights; it is also one of gender equality. The
vast majority of domestic workers in Indonesia are women, some of them
girls under the age of 18. Many are victims of gender-based violence like
rape or sexual harassment, but they do not report these crimes — either
because they are not aware that they legally can, or out of fear of losing
their jobs.
Being forced to
work from an early age to help support their families also means that many
women and girl domestic workers leave school early. This does not just
hamper their future education and employment prospects, but also leaves
them even less aware of their basic rights.
A domestic
workers protection law has been prioritized on the legislative agenda in
Indonesia since 2010, but has yet to be enacted. The failure to pass this
law has already been raised twice at the United Nations in 2012.
While there
have been some positive steps towards making the law reality over the past
year — such as initial discussions with civil society, and a legislative
working group set up to debate the issue — we urge the legislature to make
the issue a priority for 2013 and take real action toward enacting and
implementing it.
There are real
concerns that the draft may fall short of international law and standards.
Over the past year, domestic workers activists have called on the
legislature to ensure that the bill includes adequate provisions relating
to hours of work, wages and dispute resolution mechanisms, among other
things.
The bill must
also include provisions accounting for the specific needs of women — such
as ensuring sexual and reproductive rights for domestic workers, in
particular during and after pregnancy. The legislature must ensure that any
final draft is not half-hearted, but genuinely meets international human
rights standards.
The Indonesian
government should also ratify and implement the International Labor
Organization (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention, which enters in to force in
September this year and sets an international standard for improving the
condition for the world’s tens of millions of domestic workers.
President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has already expressed his support for the
convention in speeches — but as long as the government does not follow up
with action, this will continue to look like lip service to a crucial issue
as well as undermine efforts to protect the over a million Indonesian
domestic workers now employed abroad.
By taking this
issue seriously and implementing a law that provides real protection,
Indonesia could be leading the way not just for those suffering in their
own country, but in the whole wider Southeast Asian region.
Let us make
sure that on the next Day for Domestic Workers in 2014, we can look back on
some genuinely positive achievements. ●
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