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VII. Recommendations
Given the powerful economic and
cultural forces that underlie the current prevalent use of child domestics it
is unrealistic to expect that practices will change overnight. Steps can and
should be taken immediately, however, to stem the worst abuses and to begin to
build the kind of regulatory regime capable of monitoring and protecting all
children working in the domestic service sector. Two essential first steps are
nationwide enforcement of the minimum working age of fifteen and the
eradication of what is known internationally as the “worst forms” of child
domestic labor. The recommendations outlined below reflects the reforms sought
by grassroots organizations working on behalf of child domestics in Indonesia.
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Strictly enforce fifteen as the minimum age of employment for all
employment sectors, including domestic work, and enact regulations to provide
for sanctions against every labor recruiter and employer, including employers
in the informal sector, who recruit and employ children under fifteen.
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Prioritize the elimination of the worst forms of child domestic
labor, along with the child labor sectors already prioritized, and with
assistance from ILO-IPEC, institute a time-bound program to eliminate the worst
forms of child domestic labor.
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Enact regulations to monitor labor supplier agencies and
workplace conditions. Create accessible complaint mechanisms for child
domestic workers who suffer abuse, and provide rehabilitation and redress to
these workers. Investigate and penalize employers and labor agents who
perpetrate abuses.
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The Indonesian government should ratify the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic,
Social, and Cultural Rights; and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United
Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
- Amend the Manpower Act, Law No.
23/2003, to ensure that domestic workers receive the same rights as other
workers, such as a written contract, a minimum wage, overtime, a weekly
day of rest, an eight-hour workday, rest periods during the day, national
holidays, vacation, and social security, and provide for effective penalties
for violating the law.
- Amend the Manpower Act, Law No.
23/2003, to require employers to verify their employees’ ages by reviewing
and maintaining copies of the employees’ birth certificates or lower
secondary school graduation certificates.
- Amend the Manpower Act, Law No.
23/2003, to prescribe a reasonable number of hours of work during the day
that children aged fifteen and older may work to ensure that work does not
interfere with their schooling.
- Amend the Ministerial Decree on
Types of Work that are Hazardous to the Health, Safety or Moral of
Children to prohibit all employers from employing children, aged fifteen
to eighteen, overtime, and to prohibit any work which exposes children to
physical, psychological or sexual abuse, or where the child works long
hours, and is unreasonably confined to the premises of the employer, as
hazardous work, and therefore a worst form of child labor.
- Publish and distribute guides
for domestic workers setting forth their rights, and the legal
responsibilities of employers, domestic workers supplier agencies, and
other informal recruiters. Help regional governments launch a public
awareness campaign using print media, radio, and television to disseminate
this information.
- Include data on domestic
workers in the annual compilation of labor statistics and gather data from
regional ministries of manpower on exploitation and abuse of domestic
workers, disaggregated by sex and age.
- Recognize the link between the
financial barriers to education and child labor, and identify and
implement strategies to address obstacles to education that school fees
and related costs create for poor children.
- Work with the Ministry of
Manpower to amend the labor law to ensure that all working children, aged
fifteen and older, including those in the informal sector, have access to
basic education and higher secondary education, including vocational
training, by prescribing a maximum number of hours a child may work.
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Gather and publish data on prosecutions for abuse and
exploitation of domestic workers, disaggregated by sex and age of the worker.
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Work with the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment to encourage local
governments to implement the Domestic Violence law and the Child Protection
Act and to use the law to prosecute those who abuse domestic workers and who
economically and sexually exploit children, including child domestic workers.
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Work with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights to encourage
regional governments to implement the Domestic Violence Act and Child
Protection Act and to use both laws to prosecute those who psychologically,
sexually, or physically abuse domestic workers.
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Work with the Ministry of Human Rights and Justice to gather and
publish data on prosecutions for abuses and exploitation of domestic workers,
disaggregated by sex and age.
Enact regulations to create accessible complaint
mechanisms for domestic workers who suffer abuse, and maintain statistics on
complaints and cases investigated.
- Enact regulations obligating
the regional offices of manpower and transmigration to establish complaint
mechanisms that are accessible to domestic workers.
- Enact regulations requiring the
regional offices of manpower and transmigration to maintain statistics on
complaints filed by domestic workers and cases investigated by the office
of manpower and transmigration disaggregated by sex and age.
Enact regulations to monitor
labor supplier agencies and workplace conditions.
- By law require domestic worker
supplier agencies to:
- provide information orally and
in writing to prospective domestic workers provisions regarding hours of
work and rest each day, weekly day of rest, vacation, wages, types of
work, adequate food and accommodations, medical expenses for workplace
injuries, length of employment; and procedures for payment of wages,
social security, and termination of work;
- prepare work contracts fully
informing employers and domestics workers of their rights and
obligations;
- review birth certificates of
prospective domestic workers or lower secondary certification prior to
recruiting them for domestic work to ensure compliance with the minimum
age law of Indonesia; and
- fully disclose in writing and
orally any recruiting or placement fees to both domestic workers and
employers prior to recruitment and placement.
- Monitor labor supplier agencies
to ensure compliance with the law and impose meaningful financial
penalties on labor agents who violate these regulations, including
revocation of license to operate.
- By law require employers and
informal recruiters to:
- provide information orally and
in writing to prospective domestic workers provisions regarding hours of
work and rest each day, weekly day of rest, vacation, wages, types of
work, adequate food and accommodations, medical expenses for workplace
injuries, length of employment; and procedures for payment of wages,
social security, and termination of work;
- review birth certificates of
prospective domestic workers or lower secondary certification prior to
recruiting or hiring them for domestic work to ensure compliance with the
minimum age law of Indonesia; and
- Impose effective penalties against
employers and informal recruiters who violate these regulations.
- By law require employers to
register with the local neighborhood association the name and age of each
domestic worker working in their homes; and authorize neighborhood
associations to monitor compliance with the minimum age law and workplace
abuses and to promptly report violations to the local office of manpower
and transmigration and the police.
Create toll-free telephone
hotlines to ensure reporting of abuses and enact regulations to ensure
rehabilitation of and provide redress to these workers.
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Create confidential fully-staffed toll-free hotlines to receive
reports of workers’ rights violations, including abuses against child domestic
workers, and minimum wage violations. Widely disseminate the toll-free hotline
numbers through print media, television, and radio. Such hotlines should be
created in consultation with local NGOs, the local office of manpower and
transmigration, the office of women’s empowerment, and the police.
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Upon receiving reports of abuse, the local office of manpower and
transmigration should promptly send a labor inspector to investigate the
complaint. The labor inspector should be authorized to remove child domestic
workers from abusive situations. Cases of abuse should be promptly reported to
the local police for criminal investigation. The local police should promptly
investigate cases of abuses and refer cases for prosecution.
- Collaborate with local NGOs to
provide child domestic workers withdrawn from abusive and exploitative
workplaces safe shelter and determine ways to reintegrate child domestic
workers with their families, taking into account the best interests of the
child.
- Provide for the rehabilitation
of child domestic workers who have suffered physical, psychological, or
sexual abuse.
Implement existing laws to
protect children from abuse and exploitation.
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Implement the Domestic Violence Act and Child Protection Act and
use the laws to prosecute all who abuse and exploit child domestic workers.
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Enforce the issuance of free birth certificates as required by
the Child Protection Act.
Disseminate information on the
rights of domestic workers, and obligations of employers, domestic worker
supplier agents, and informal recruiters.
- Work with the central Ministry
of Manpower to create a guide on the rights of domestic workers, and the
obligations of employers, domestic worker suppler agencies, and informal
recruiters. Raise public awareness using the radio, television, and print
media to disseminate this information.
Address financial barriers to education and limit the
working hours of children to enable them to attend school.
- Recognize the link between the
financial barriers to education and child labor, and identify and
implement strategies to address obstacles to education that school fees
and related costs create for poor children.
- Enact local regulations
prescribing the maximum number of hours children aged fifteen and older,
including those in the informal sector, may work to enable working
children access to basic education and higher secondary education,
including vocational training.
- Push for amendments to the
labor laws so that Indonesia is in compliance with its obligations under
Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, the Minimum Age Convention, and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child. Urge the Indonesian government to
pass the legal reforms outlined above.
- Continue to work with the
Indonesian government to prioritize the elimination of the worst forms of
child domestic labor.
- Work with the Indonesian
government to draft a guide for domestic workers, employers, domestic
worker supplier agencies, and other informal recruiters outlining their
rights and legal obligations, and assist the national and regional
governments in a public awareness campaign on the issue, with special
emphasis on child domestic workers.
- Create model work contracts for
employers and domestic workers that include provisions prescribing the
maximum hours of work and rest each day, weekly day of rest, vacation, wages,
overtime, types of work; and provisions for adequate food and
accommodations, medical expenses, length of employment; procedures for
payment of wages, social security, and termination of work.
- Within existing education
initiatives work with the Ministry of Education to ensure child domestic
workers have access to primary and secondary education.
- Urge the Indonesian government
to amend the Manpower Act to protect child domestic workers from abuse and
exploitation, and to identify strategies to implement the Child Protection
Act.
- Promote the elimination of the
worst forms of child domestic labor by providing resources for public
awareness campaigns on the rights and legal obligations of domestic
workers, employers, and domestic worker supplier agencies; and for
creating confidential toll-free hotlines to receive reports of workers’
rights violations, including abuses against child domestics, and minimum age
violations.
- Raise the issue of abuses
against child domestic workers in bilateral and multilateral meetings with
the Indonesian government and press for amending the labor law to afford
fundamental labor rights to workers in the informal sector, including
domestic workers.
- Provide technical assistance in
amending the labor law to protect domestic workers from exploitation.
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