Syamsuniar, 64, makes a living by packaging drinking straws at her home in the Medan Deli district of Medan, North Sumatra.

Compared to other, younger workers, she works fast, too. She said she could finish packing tens of thousands of straws, weighing around 4 kilograms, into packages of ten within only two days. Yet, she claimed, she often received less that the others.

“I only receive Rp 32,000 [US$2.27] for two days of work. I think it is unfair,” Syamsuniar told The Jakarta Post recently, adding that she had not had a raise in years.

Syamsuniar is among thousands of homeworkers who work for corporations or agents from home in the provincial capital of Medan.

“Homeworker” is a term used by the International Labor Organization [ILO] to refer to industrial outworkers, who carry out paid work, usually on a piece-rate basis, from their home for companies or their intermediaries. They are also often referred to as putting-out workers. Most are women from poor families.

The low income and unstable employment of such workers have long been identified as problems, as highlighted in a joint 2015 study by the ILO and the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (MAMPU).

The study surveyed thousands of female homeworkers in 297 villages across six provinces, including North Sumatra.

The study found that these workers tended to have a lower level of educational achievement, while more than 80 percent of the interviewed women were married to unskilled men who make a living by doing casual or short-term jobs. “The women got their job through social networks such as friends and neighbors, and their jobs were their [family’s] primary source of income,” the study said.

The lack of additional allowances between workers and the companies or intermediaries was also a hurdle for the women’s welfare. Another homeworker, Fitriana, 48, claimed her employer never gave her any holiday bonus or medical compensation when she got sick.

Fitriana, who received Rp 17,500 for a two-day job of packing detergent, also claimed that she had never signed any contract before doing the work. “We got this job from an agent, so we never know whom we are working for.”

The study also highlights that most of the workers never sign any written contract, with almost half of them only having verbal agreements with the intermediaries as a basis of cooperation. Workers also rarely have the opportunity to renegotiate their salaries.

Other challenges facing these homeworkers include inadequate equipment and on-the-job training as well as a lack of compensation for production-related expenses.

Aiming to address the issue and to give homeworkers a voice, four labor unions and representatives of the female homeworkers union held a national-level meeting in Medan recently. The four-day meeting discussed strategies and recommendations, which will serve as a guideline for employing homeworkers.

Erika Rosmawati, the manager of homeworkers advocacy group Bitra Indonesia, highlighted the lack of protection for putting-out workers under the Manpower Law. Loopholes in the 2003 law, Erika went on to say, made corporations feel that they were not obliged to fulfill homeworkers’ rights.

Indonesia has yet to ratify the ILO’s Home Work Convention, which standardizes the rights of homeworkers.

Umar Kasim, a Manpower Ministry representative who was present at the meeting, acknowledged the absence of specific provisions in current regulations.

“We suggest that subnational administrations regulate the matter by issuing bylaws or provincial decrees.”

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