Emanuel Dile Bataona, Lembata – The National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT) has received some 600 complaints from domestic workers (PRT) who suffered violence at the hands of their employers, or have been victims of human rights abuses in 2023.
Jala PRT Coordinator Lita Anggraini added that the complaints reported included detention, torture, depravation of communication access, non-payment of wages and confiscation of important documents such as ID cards (KTP) and diplomas.
"Just from agents alone there were almost 600, because we received complaints to be released [from employment]. Most were from the East Nusa Tenggara region, East Java, Central Java, also there are many from West Java", Anggraini said after holding a peaceful action in front of the House of Representatives (DPR) building in Jakarta on Wednesday June 7.
Given the widespread complaints by domestic workers, Anggraini believes that the government needs to be serious about providing a legal umbrella by enacting the Draft Law on the Protection of Domestic Workers (RUU PPRT).
She is urging the government and the DPR to immediately finish the deliberations and pass the draft bill into law this year.
Anggraini said that essentially, the substance of the RUU PPRT is to provide protection for both domestic workers and job providers. This protection needs to be from the upstream to the downstream, or pre-employment, during employment and post-employment.
Under the proposed draft law, Anggraini hopes that domestic workers can obtain transparent information so families will know who they are working for and what their employment situation is.
Transparency, according to Anggraini, can be realised through integrated and reliable data collection, something the government must focus on. So that every domestic worker who is employed is registered under a system that can be monitored both by job providers, agents and village officials.
"So not like now, like the loss of contact happening, violence happening. With this integrated data it will also be clear, PRTs will get insurance like Jamsostek [Workers Insurance Scheme] or like that", said Anggraini.
The government has already finished deliberating 367 items in the problem inventory list (DIM) related to the RUU PPRT. Out of the 367 items, 79 cover substantially new issues.
The RUU PPRT contains some nine chapters. Broken down, Chapter I is on general stimulations, Chapter II on principles and aims and Chapter III on recruitment and the scope of household work.
Later the recruitment of domestic workers can be done through two mechanisms. First, the direct recruitment of prospective domestic workers through job providers based on a contract. Second, the indirect recruitment through Domestic Worker Placement Companies (P3RT).
Chapter IV contains stipulations about employment, Chapter V is on the rights and obligations of the respective parties and Chapter VI covers expertise and skills improvement.
Chapter VII contains stipulations on P3RT, Chapter VIII on guidelines and supervision and Chapter IX is on dispute resolution. The remaining chapters cover criminal stipulations, transfers and the closing provisions.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "NTT Terbanyak, Jaringan Nasional Advokasi PRT Sebut Ada 600 Aduan Kekerasan Sepanjang 2023".]
