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compulsory weekly day off for domestic workers in Malaysia is imperative to prevent abuse and forced labor, according to a Malaysian trade union and an Indonesian NGO concerned with the rights of migrant workers.

Malaysia does not provide legal protection for domestic workers, be they Indonesians or Malaysians, for they are not considered workers by the country's labor laws.

The only avenue of redress provided to domestic workers is to file a complaint over unpaid salaries with the Labor Department, which they can hardly do as they have to work "seven days a week and 365 days a year", secretary-general of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) G. Rajasekaran said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post last week.

"The fight for one day off a week is not only linked to the fact that *domestic workers* should be recognized as human beings who need a break," Rajasekaran said, "it is also about allowing them to meet other people, to learn more about their rights and to find help if they have a problem."

The MTUC made the statement following the latest torture case involving an Indonesian housemaid. Siti Hajar, a 33-year-old woman from Garut, West Java, had reportedly been abused during her three years working for her Malaysian employer, work for which she was never paid.

Another Indonesian working as a housemaid in Malaysia, Nurul Wijayanti, was recently found dead in her employer's house, Antara reported Saturday. She allegedly committed suicide, according to an official at the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

"What happened to Siti Hajar is not an exception. Thousands of foreign domestic workers in the country are made to endure beatings, poor living conditions and suffer in silence," Rajasekaran said. The union is planning to raise the issue at Malaysia's National Labor Advisory Council later this month.

Indonesia is currently drafting a law on the protection of housemaids, a progressive move that can be used to press Malaysia to give a day off for Indonesian domestic workers there, Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah told the Post on Sunday. "Indonesia can push Malaysia to do the same thing."

Anis added, however, that it would not be easy to persuade Malaysia to do so as the country's foreign labor issues were dominated by immigration matters. "I just hope the government would be able to incorporate such regulations into the revised MoU *on the protection of migrant workers* between the two countries."

Chairman of The National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Overseas Labor (BNP2TKI) Jumhur Hidayat has said his office would fight for domestic workers' right to have a day-off. Foreign Ministry director for international treaties and legal affairs Arief Havas Oegroseno was not available for comment on the revised memorandum of understanding *MoU* on Sunday.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's state-owned news agency, Bernama, reported the country's Manpower Department had opened a hotline (at 03-88889111) to assist abused housemaids during an emergency.