Idul Fitri compassion

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 09/29/2007 3:34 PM  |  Opinion

Here comes the annual exodus of millions of holiday makers, who will for a week or so reunite with family and friends in their hometowns for Idul Fitri, turning Jakarta into a virtual ghost town.

As in previous years, the Idul Fitri holiday will give many families here a headache as they have to take over household chores from their on-leave maids.

Many Jakarta families who prefer not to join the exodus but who refuse to do household jobs will opt to stay in hotels or serviced apartments for the holiday, or perhaps go overseas, until their maids return.

Many other families may just grit their teeth and start sweeping the floors, doing the laundry and washing the dishes, all of which are time-consuming and energy-sapping.

For a full week or two Jakarta families will realize just how important their maids are. Whether or not their employers realize it, maids definitely contribute to the achievements and successes of their bosses, be they top government officials, business tycoons or middle-class families.

Despite this, many of the 1.4 million maids in Jakarta, according to assessments by Atma Jaya University and the International Labor Organization, do not receive decent salaries and are at risk of physical and mental abuse. Worse, almost a half of all maids are underage and are working at the expense of their education.

Domestic helpers have for centuries been at the bottom of the social structure. Maids are usually associated with poverty, illiteracy and submission. In many cases it is difficult to differentiate between working as a maid and domestic slavery.

Although their lifestyle has changed much over the years, as seen in their dress and their frequent mobile phone conversations, domestic helpers remain among the weakest of the country's workers, due to a lack of legal protection.

In this they share much the same fate as many of the more than a million Indonesian migrant workers employed as domestic helpers across Asia. There have been reports of rape, assault and torture of migrant workers.

Here and overseas, Indonesian maids are not properly protected. Indonesians who employ domestic helpers may treat them well and regard them as part of our families, but still their fate depends on our generosity. We can dismiss them at will without paying them compensation, as employer-maid relations are not covered by labor laws. There are no institutions or individuals to defend them when it comes to labor disputes.

Unlike in developed countries, maids in Indonesia remain part of the informal sector. This exempts them from basic rights that other workers, even those who are paid less than domestic helpers, are entitled to, like the right to form unions and be paid at least the minimum wage.

The Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, during the administration of Megawati Soekarnoputri, proposed a bill on domestic helpers that would have provided them protection. To date there is no sign that this bill will be submitted to the House of Representatives for deliberation.

The Jakarta administration has enacted Regional Ordinance No. 6/93 on domestic helpers, which requires employers to provide them a decent wage, annual leave and to treat them humanely. The bylaw facilitates dispute settlement between employers and maids through a government-sanctioned body and threatens jail for employers and placement agencies that violate the ordinance.

However, the regulation offers inadequate protection for domestic helpers as it fails to address, among others issues, healthcare, work hours and remuneration.

Worse, government officials, employers and maids themselves are unaware of the ordinance due to lackluster efforts to disseminate information on the regulation to the public. For 14 years the regulation has remained a pile of papers.

The upcoming Idul Fitri holiday is a good time to repay our maids for all they do for us. They deserve not only a vacation to celebrate the holiday with their families, but also a bonus amounting to at least one month's pay.

However, the most precious Idul Fitri gift we can give them is an apology for our past trespasses and a promise to treat them from this day forward with the respect and thanks they deserve.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.