About This Report
Workers in the Shadows
February 11, 2009

VIII. Recommendations

To the president and the national parliament

  • In order to be in conformity with international legal standards prior to the 2010 ILO Conference on Decent Work for Domestic Workers, pass a Domestic Workers Law by the end of 2009 that:

1.Guarantees 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, paid sick leave, workers compensation, and social security.

2.Provides effective penalties for employers who violate the law, including fines, bans on future hiring of domestic workers, payment of civil damages, and imprisonment in accordance with the criminal code in cases of physical and sexual abuse.

3.Requires employers and labor agents who recruit and place domestic workers to verify the age of prospective domestic workers by reviewing and maintaining copies of the employees' birth certificates or junior high school graduation certificates. Sanctions should be provided for individuals who provide fake documents to children falsifying their age.

4.Prescribes the maximum number of hours children age 15 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.

5.Stipulates minimum conditions of housing arrangements, provision of food, and protects domestic workers' freedom of movement and communication.

  • By mid-2010, ratify the Palermo Protocol for the Prevention and Suppression of Trafficking in Persons.
  • Provide support and cooperation to NGOs that provide assistance to child domestic workers.

To the provincial and district governments

  • Strictly enforce 15 as the minimum age of employment for all employment sectors, including domestic work. The only exception to this rule is for children age 13 and 14 engaged in "light" work who, under the limited conditions elaborated in the 2003 Manpower Act, may work for up to three hours a day. Prioritize underage domestic workers for removal and recovery assistance to help them rebuild their lives.
  • Progressively develop and implement an effective removal and recovery program that can provide temporary accommodation, immediate physical and psychological health care, legal assistance, and access to formal schooling or vocational or skills training. Develop medium- and long-term support options for children for whom returning them to their family is not in the best interest of the child. Prioritize underage domestic workers for removal and recovery assistance to help them rebuild their lives.
  • By the end of 2009, design and institute a program to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, including the worst forms of child domestic labor.
  • By the end of 2010, enact regulations that:

1.Require employers to register the name and age of each domestic worker working in their homes with the local labor agency or another appropriate local authority.

2.Require labor inspectors or other designated inspectors to monitor labor supply agencies and workplace conditions, and that authorize inspectors to monitor private households, conduct unannounced visits, and interview domestic workers privately about working conditions.

3.Require employers and agents who recruit or place domestic workers to fully disclose in writing and orally 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, any recruiting or placement fees, and procedures for payment of wages, social security, and termination of work.

4.Require agents who recruit or place domestic workers to review the birth certificates or junior high school certificates of prospective domestic workers prior to recruiting to ensure compliance with the minimum working age law.

5.Prescribe the maximum number of hours children ages 15 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.

6.Ban abusive employers from hiring domestic workers in the future and ban recruiters who have engaged in unethical practices from recruiting domestic workers.

  • Provide labor inspectors or other designated inspectors with the resources and training necessary to effectively monitor child labor in hidden work situations, including child domestic labor, and to refer for prosecution those responsible for abusing children.
  • Create and make accessible "blacklists" of employers who have committed abuses and are prohibited from employing domestic workers and of recruiters who have engaged under-age workers.
  • By the end of 2010, create accessible complaint mechanisms for any child domestic workers who suffer abuse, and provide rehabilitation and redress to these workers.
  • Ensure that provincial and district Action Committees for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor meet regularly, and identify the worst forms of domestic labor as a priority area.
  • Consider additional policy measures that support workers' associations, recreation centers, and labor resource centers, as means of disseminating information about workers' rights, access to services, and improving skills. Such services should particularly be directed at child domestic workers and other child workers.
  • 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. Expand any existing programs that provide assistance to poor children who cannot access school to also include migrant children under 15 found to be working in the area.
  • Facilitate children's access to formal savings institutions such as banks.

To the Ministry of Manpower

  • Immediately prioritize the drafting and public consultation on a Domestic Workers Law that reflects the protections outlined above, with the aim of completing a draft by mid-2009.
  • Provide instruction and necessary resources to local Manpower offices to carry out their existing duties to investigate labor exploitation of child domestic workers.
  • Cooperate with other relevant ministries on the links between education and early entry into the labor force.
  • Encourage provincial and district Action Committees for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor to meet regularly, and to identify the worst forms of domestic labor as a priority area. Facilitate communication and coordination with the national committee.
  • Develop a mechanism to allow child domestic workers to pursue administrative or legal proceedings to advocate for their rights in labor disputes with their employers regarding matters such as unpaid wages or working conditions. Provide advocates to accompany and guide child domestic workers who pursue such labor complaints.

To the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and the Ministry of Women's Empowerment

  • Design and implement a public awareness campaign on the Child Protection Act, the Domestic Violence Act, and the Anti-Trafficking Act that targets the police, prosecutors, the judiciary, civil society groups, and the general public.
  • Continue to advocate with the Ministry of Manpower and other relevant government branches for the drafting and passage of a strong domestic workers law.

To the police

  • Reduce response time by the women's and children's unit when a complaint is filed by a domestic worker regarding abuse or exploitation. Sufficient information should be collected at the very first interaction with a victim to enable an investigation to be started immediately.
  • Comply with the obligations under the Domestic Violence Act, in particular, to provide temporary protection to a victim within 24 hours of knowing or receiving a report of violence in the household.
  • Provide adequate resources and training to women's and children's unit, and publicize their existence to the public.
  • Consult and work with NGOs to create protocols for handling cases of abuse against child domestic workers, including referral for health care, counseling, legal aid, and shelter.
  • Design proactive community outreach and investigative strategies to carry out existing obligations under the law to identify hidden instances of exploitation and abuse of child domestic workers.

To the prosecutors

·Ensure all prosecutors receive regular training on eliminating gender bias in their approach to cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other gender-based crimes against women and girls. Ensure all prosecutors conduct their functions without gender bias.

  • Where feasible, consider the development of a unit of prosecutors who specialize in cases involving crimes against children or gender-based crimes against women.

To the TeSA129, police, and KPAI child hotlines

  • Ensure hotlines are adequately staffed around the clock by trained personnel who can alert officials to extract children from abusive situations, provide safe shelter, medical treatment, and counseling. 

To the Ministry of Education

  • 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.
  • Create greater opportunities for girls to enroll in vocational training programs and higher education in order to give them greater access to skilled, well-remunerated employment.
  • Work with the Ministry of Manpower to amend the labor law to ensure that all working children, age 15 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.

To the International Labour Organisation

  • Continue technical assistance to both the national and local governments to bring their laws, policies, and programs into compliance with international standards.
  • Continue valuable financial and technical assistance to local NGOs that provide services to child domestic workers, and which advocate locally and nationally on behalf of child domestic workers.
  • Advocate for the inclusion of special protections for child domestic workers during the drafting of the new treaty on decent work standards for domestic workers.

To local and international NGOs and donors

  • Support programs that reduce children's vulnerability to entering domestic work.
  • Support programs that work to change prevalent attitudes and perceptions that serve to either push girls into domestic work, or create a demand factor for young girls to become domestic workers.
  • Track progress on the passage of a Domestic Worker Law throughout 2009 as an indicator of Indonesia's commitment to advancing gender equality and human rights.