Several years ago, when I was conducting my research for Dreamseekers, the book on Indonesian domestic workers in Asia, people often asked me whether it was smooth sailing for those working in Indonesia itself. My answer then was that they had a different set of challenges.
I neglected to point out, that both the women working overseas and those working domestically indeed had a number of common problems in terms of obtaining legal protection.
Among these are the two most pertinent ones facing our policy makers, which unfortunately represent the potential for protracted difficulties for the domestic workers.
The first one is, domestic workers deemed the best are those who work quietly yet flawlessly in the background, and as such, they are socially unnoticeable, even invisible, though in reality indispensable. While expected to be good at various tasks they are regarded as having no specific skills, thus have fallen to the bottom ring of the social ladder.
This is aggravated by the second problem I would like to highlight: The high rate of unemployment in Indonesia practically ensures that there has never been any shortage in the supply of candidates.
These two related elements result in a lack of perception in mainstream society that there are pressing problems. Consequently, the whole issue has difficulty in being taken seriously and being deemed important enough to be a top priority by this country’s law and policy makers.
For women who work as domestic helpers in this country, there are complicating social and historical factors which come into play.
All the law and policy makers, as well as their family and friends, I am sure, have domestic helpers, very likely more than one per household. And I have no doubt that they treat them well, with a great deal of consideration.
Thus, deliberating and drafting a protection bill for them would be much more personal than working on a border protection bill, for instance. It is like addressing the thought that their domestic helpers may need protection from themselves. This emotional challenge may generate some degree of reluctance. And it is not difficult to rationalize this reluctance.
“Most informal domestic work arrangements have gone well. Both parties are reasonably happy. As for instances of abuse, these can usually be handled by the country’s criminal law system.
“So where is the urgency? It is different when our women are abused by foreigners overseas. That is definitely not acceptable.”
Apart from the fact that Indonesian women working overseas as domestic workers are yet to enjoy real and proper legal protection provided by their own government, the ones working in their own country are also vulnerable to abuse due to the lack of a necessary legal framework. In fact, those working overseas, in places where there are well-grounded and well-implemented labor laws, such as in Hong Kong, are better protected.
One factor, which deserves to be considered, is that domestic work has an historical background, unlike most other types of employment. In many countries in Asia particularly, it began with well-off families extending assistance to their less fortunate relatives by taking members of the poorer families into their households to help with the chores.
Payment was not a central issue, because the important objective was to lighten the burden of the relatives’ families and to give food and shelter to the family members being added to the household. In practice, of course, the family members were often exploited and abused, though that was not always the case. One thing is obvious.
The exploitation and abuse went on because there was no protection, legal or otherwise, for those powerless people. Theoretically, at least for those looking from the outside, it was a domestic affair because the exploited and abused were “part of the family”.
When this tradition evolved, and those recruited to work in the households were not in any way related, society still regarded them as part of the family, though many were certainly not treated as such.
When the later era of industrialization was followed by the drafting of labor laws in different countries, providing protection to various degrees, to workers, those who worked as domestic helpers fell through the cracks and remained invisible. Even today, their work is perceived as part of the informal sector by most.
As informal worker, or as a part of the family, in theory they should be able to take time off when it suits everyone around. They should sleep in appropriate beds like everyone in the family. Indeed, in many households this is the case, because they have excellent relationships with their employers who are progressive-minded, and who appreciate their humanity. And, here is a crucial point: The domestic workers’ lot depends on their employers’ human qualities. They cannot resort to the protection of the law.
To return to the drafting of the protection bill, the legislators’ challenges extend beyond the issues of the vulnerability of the domestic workers. There are the employers to be taken into consideration. Not all employers for example, are in a position to provide a proper bed, three decent meals, and regular days off.
And how to regulate the working hours? Employers who themselves are employed outside the house for instance, do they not need their domestic helpers’ service early in the morning and late in the evening, before they go to work and when they return home?
This is where extensive consultation is crucial. Input should be sought from various parties: the domestic workers themselves, the employers, the supply agencies, the training agencies, and just as important, they should also hear each other out. It may be that the domestic workers protection law requires more flexibility, consideration, and creative thinking than other workers’ legislation. It may even take longer to draft it.
However, the consultation should not exclude any stakeholder in the working arrangements and should not take anything for granted. After all, when the arrangements go well, everyone benefits. All parties involved, in effect, are stakeholders. It would be useful to keep that in mind.
The writer is a journalist and an adjunct research associate at the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Her latest book, Dreamseekers: Indonesian Women as Domestic Workers in Asia was published by Equinox Publishing and ILO.
