New bill to protect Indonesia’s domestic workers leaves 2 million exposed
- It doesn’t set minimum wage, working age, cap hours or cover those hired by a household rather than an agency, nor does it consider the tradition of ‘ngenger’
- Almost 5 million domestic staff serve as the backbone of Southeast Asia’s largest economy, looking after richer Indonesians to pursue more lucrative careers
Indonesia is the largest democracy in the world without a law to protect its domestic workers. That may be about to change, with a bill that also paves the way to better rights for millions of Indonesians in places such as Hong Kong and Singapore. But at home, many domestic employees will miss out on the law’s protections completely.
Almost 5 million domestic staff serve as the invisible backbone of Southeast Asia’s largest economy, looking after upper-middle-class homes and freeing richer Indonesians to pursue more lucrative careers. But they are often physically and socially isolated, leaving them particularly vulnerable to exploitation, assault and modern slavery.
The Domestic Workers Protection Bill, which President Joko Widodo aims to pass into law this month, gives household employees – three-quarters of whom are women – more of the rights afforded to formal workers.
Without it, “slavery will be much more entrenched in Indonesian mindsets”, said Lita Anggraini, the country’s leading activist on domestic workers’ rights.
She sees the bill as an important protection against the idea that “anything is acceptable for a domestic worker”.
Siti Khotimah, 24, is an example of just how bad things can get. She was just four months into working for a family in an affluent southern Jakarta neighbourhood when her employer chained her, beat her and doused her with boiling water as punishment for a minor theft.