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Executive pressure mounts on House to advance domestic workers bill
The government is putting pressure on the House of Representatives to expedite the domestic workers' protection bill, which has been stalled for nearly two decades.
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Two people on a motorcycle drive past a mural, painted on a wall under Kewek Bridge in Yogyakarta, calling for the government and the legislature to pass the domestic workers' protection bill, as seen in this file photo from December 2021. (Antara/Andreas Fitri Atmoko)
T
he government is putting pressure on the House of Representatives to expedite passage of the bill on domestic workers’ protection, which has languished for nearly two decades, reminiscent of the strategy used to pass the Sexual Violence Law.
Earlier this month, the Executive Office of the President (KSP) set up a special task force to provide support to the legislature in passing the bill.
The team includes representatives from the Attorney General’s Office, the Office of the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister as well as the ministries of law and human rights, manpower, women’s empowerment and child protection, and social affairs. It also has representatives from the National Police.
The task force assembled for the first time on Tuesday for a two-day working session to seek ways to advance the stalled bill to the House plenary session to approve it for deliberation.
Jaleswari Pramodhawardani, the deputy of politics, law, security and human rights at the President’s Office, said it was imperative that considerable progress was made on the bill by the end of this year. If possible, it should be passed into law within the coming months, mainly to avoid the process from spilling over into the “political year” before the 2024 general election.
“The fact that this bill has been stalled for [around] two decades means that the political will among stakeholders isn’t optimal,” Jaleswari told the task force meeting.
In response to this ambitious timeline, Willy Aditya, a NasDem politician who heads the House working committee discussing the domestic workers bill, told The Jakarta Post that realistically, more time would be needed to pass the bill into law.
