Govt demanded to ratify UN convention

Monday, October 19, 2009

Written and published by The Jakarta Post, Fri, 10/16/2009 2:36 PM and can be found at http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/10/16/govt-demanded-ratify-un-convention.html

The National Commission for Women has urged the government to ratify the 1990 UN Convention on female migrant worker protection to look after millions of Indonesian female migrant workers.

The organization's commissioner, Sri Wiyanti Eddyono, said recently the government signed the UN convention but was yet to approve it - even though the country had migrant workers in numerous countries since the 1980s.

Sri said the government issued a law on the protection of workers abroad. She said it regulated most labor-supplying companies, and prevented labor smuggling and illegal migrants.

According to Sri, if the UN convention was ratified it could be a legal base for female migrant workers to settle disputes with employers, and demand their wage, work hours and leave rights were met.

The chairman of the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, Jumhur Hidayat, admitted the government was yet to commit to protecting migrant workers, which the Constitution should guarantee.

"The convention has not seriously been considered by the government," he said. Jumhur also said he expected the next minister to propose the convention be ratified.

It was claimed the government had declined to ratify the UN convention since countries employing Indonesian workers had not yet authorized it.

Sri said Indonesia should not supply workers to countries that refused to ratify the convention.

He also said female Indonesian migrant workers consistently filed physical and sexual assault complaints they experienced in their workplaces abroad."Some employers also take their employees' passports. This means they cannot leave the country, even though they have been abused and exploited," she said.

Jumhur also said many female migrant workers who suffered from mistreatment were domestic workers. He added a great number of female migrant workers from Indonesia had suffered from abuse while some had died as a consequence. He said most domestic workers were regulated by the domestic workers law - not the labor law.

Indonesia has signed a bilateral agreement with Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea to prevent abuse in the workplace.

However, labor abuse is rife in countries that have not deployed regulation to protect employees' rights in the workplace.