JP: Most wage violations against domestic workers 'done by expats'

[londo_edan]

I find this article in the JP today very hard to believe:

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/...-against-domestic-workers-done-by-expats.html

And this quote in particular, I've heard time and time again, it appears to recur like an urban myth:

'When [the expatriates] realize that Indonesia does not have laws that rule employment of domestic workers, they start to neglect wage payments as well as health and social insurance. Some even fire their housemaids nearing the Idul Fitri holiday so that they don't have to pay the bonus,"

I would suggest a couple comments:

I doubt that there are many expats that modify their behavior towards their staff when they 'realise' RI doesn't have laws protecting domestic workers.
Compared to many countries, the number of expats here is fairly low. What are the chances that expats then make-up the majority of complaints to this NGO ?

Seems to me to be more like a casual, xenophobic agenda being nursed here, rather than significant data. To me anyway.

And WTF's with the JP - surely there should be some sort of balancing here ?

 

[Scooterindo]

Ask any maid and she will tell you the ideal employer for her would be an expat as we tend to pay more and treat them much better

 

[HappyMan]

I think the numbers might be right, but not indicate what the article says they do. Personally, I think they indicate that workers are more likely to complain of poor treatment when they receive it at the hands of a foreigner. I think it shows that domestic staff have high expectations of their foreign employers than they do of a local one. I also think it indicates that the disappointed workers are more likely to seek punitive action towards foreign employers than they are towards local employers.

The actual number of complaints about salaries paid by foreigners was 50. That is out of a total of 72 complaints for the entire Jakarta area. I'd just like to take this moment to toss out the number 10,000,000, which is the population of Jakarta... of that population, there are approximately 28,000 expats. That is 0.28 percent of the population. So, if we just play with the numbers a bit... for this story to be accurate, foreigners would have to be something like 833 times more likely to underpay their employees than are Indonesians... in order to do seventy percent of the underpaying. That is just not happening. BS. The headline should read, "Domestic staff more likely to report wage violations against foreigners."

I also find this line to be telling, "Ludiyah, a domestic worker belonging to the Sapu Lidi Domestic Worker Association, who once got fired by her expatriate boss without being fully paid, said many of her friends worked for periods of time ranging from several months to two years at foreigners' houses without being paid at all." I find it very hard to believe someone worked for two years without being paid at all... and the fact that this article includes such unlikely hearsay without any visible attempt at verification reflect the general quality of the article... it is shit.

 

[Nimbus]

I think the NGO purposely adopts a xenophobic tone to advance its cause, which is legal protection for domestic workers. They're trying the nationalistic angle, because they assume that legislators don't normally give a damn about PRT otherwise. Sad.

The article is simply describing the position of the organization without any investigation on JP's part. The newspaper probably doesn't have the budget for a real investigative reporting. Also sad.

 

[El_Goretto]

And this is why I've stopped reading the Jakarta Post a long time ago.

 

[Davita]

The report says...
"74 cases of economic mistreatment against domestic workers reported from January to mid-September this year, about 70 percent of them were committed by expatriates from South Korea, China, Malaysia, Europe, Japan, the US and Australia."

It might be more telling if those countries had been separated into which were more prone for their citizens to behave like this.

 

[fastpitch17]

This whole article is bogus. I doubt that any expat would not pay their domestic help for such a long period and I doubt any domestic help would hang around that long. I do know and have heard of some Indonesian households that have withold payments for 3 or 4 months and then complain their staff have "run." This is usually followed with, "they were stealing from us." They were never fired for stealing but the household saves face in destroying others.

Expats know the laws concerning bonus and pay it. I have seen complaints by staff that the expat didn't pay for a full year even though the domestic worker only worked for 8 months. Expats seem to take care of domestic live ins personal needs better then the locals, give better living quarters then the locals, offer higher quality and healthier meals, and give better care to the domestic workers. Expats also give wages on an average of 1.5 to 2 juta a month while the locals think 700 rebu to 1 juta is more than enough and the help should be grateful.

Expats also seem to treat their help as human beings while many of the local employers treat them as lower caste servants. Nope, this article is bogus.

 

[Anglian]

Well I haven't read the article and find the JP a waste of paper, but going by the poor maid opposite who has just been fired because she had a girl friend visit her, her day started about 4am preparing breakfast for all the family, she spends most of the day opening and closing the gates as the family are too idol to get out of their cars to open the gates or the garage doors themselves, even if they return very late evening they toot for her, waking the poor soul up after cleaning, washing a mass of laundry during the day, and preparing the evening meal,
A couple of maids we have had over the years never got paid by their previous local employer and were occasionally abused, so I think most maids have been badly treated by their own rather than foriegners, although I suppose an occasional foreigner does abuse their maid but not as expressed in the JP

 

[Davita]

For those knocking the Jakarta Post it should be noted that this was a report..... not an opinion piece.
The information came from...

"the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT) says......

This year's data submitted by Jala PRT to the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan)"

 

[jstar]

.
I remember Jala's lawsuit against the Indonesian government some four years ago since the 10.000.000 (ten million) domestic workers in the country were not properly protected and used as semi-slaves and mistreated.

I am glad to see that was succesful and that the situation seems to be solved. So now they can go to the next and final phase; protect those who are mistreated by them foreigners.

 

[fastpitch17]

For those knocking the Jakarta Post it should be noted that this was a report..... not an opinion piece.
The information came from...

"the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy (Jala PRT) says......

This year's data submitted by Jala PRT to the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan)"

It would still be JPs responsibility to do some confirmation of what they are reporting on. Isn't that journalistic responsibility? I looked on FB to see if they had this on their feed, they do not. That indicates to me they knew darn well they would be chastized for such an article. It doesn't matter if they are just reporting on what someone else said, they have a responsibility to report what is factual or not so. Par for the course though. Always report what others tell you and never think you should ask questions.

 

[Davita]

To attempt to keep the thread and reports in perspective..... here is an earlier report by the same Jakpost reporter on the same subject....

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/...ases-arent-taken-seriously-activist-says.html

This earlier report had nothing to do with expats......but a lot to do with the same domestic helpers.
IMO it is also telling in that complaints were many but legal action minimal. Therefore, the complaints didn't merit consideration or the police cannot see how to 'make'.....so what's new!!! It's Indonesia.

 

[Davita]

It would still be JPs responsibility to do some confirmation of what they are reporting on. Isn't that journalistic responsibility? I looked on FB to see if they had this on their feed, they do not. That indicates to me they knew darn well they would be chastized for such an article. It doesn't matter if they are just reporting on what someone else said, they have a responsibility to report what is factual or not so. Par for the course though. Always report what others tell you and never think you should ask questions.

I think you are missing the point....but if you rely on FB for information I'm not surprised.

The report is summary of a document submitted by Jala PRT to the Homnas Perempuan Dept. of Government...not something said or needs to be confirmed. The document itself is a matter of record.

 

[jstar]

.
Of course this can all be a smart decision on a different strategy: The struggle to improve the situation of the domestic workers has never been really succesful.

So what can we do? How to get our cause in the news so all people will like to talk about it without feeling attacked themselves? How can we make sure we don't have to blame the middle and upper class Indonesian household? Which group will be targeted by the police, labor and justice department so we finally get some results? Hmm....

 

[londo_edan]

I think you are missing the point....but if you rely on FB for information I'm not surprised.

The report is summary of a document submitted by Jala PRT to the Homnas Perempuan Dept. of Government...not something said or needs to be confirmed. The document itself is a matter of record.

Sorry, I don't buy that. There needs to be some assessment of items, reports, quotes etc that are included in any newspaper, anywhere, to gauge bias and put the item in some sort of perspective. I have seen JP, JGlobe, Kompas etc do this type of thing but recently an objective assessment seems to be lacking in some of the JP reports.

 

[fastpitch17]

I think you are missing the point....but if you rely on FB for information I'm not surprised.

Where did I say I am relying on FB for anything? Have you ever seen me report any article linked to FB? I don't know where you get your assumptions but perhaps you should rethink them.

The thing is, JP loves to spread their articles all over FB and especially the ones that will get lots of comments agreeing with their missed justice, oh the bad guy, or what is missing here articles. I think if they would have posted this they would have also received a lot of comments and most of those would have been directed at their reporting of this article and probably not in a nice way.

 

[Davita]

I looked on FB to see if they had this on their feed, they do not. That indicates to me they knew darn well they would be chastized for such an article. .

Where did I say I am relying on FB for anything? Have you ever seen me report any article linked to FB? I don't know where you get your assumptions but perhaps you should rethink them.
The thing is, JP loves to spread their articles all over FB and especially the ones that will get lots of comments agreeing with their missed justice, oh the bad guy, or what is missing here articles. I think if they would have posted this they would have also received a lot of comments and most of those would have been directed at their reporting of this article and probably not in a nice way.

I relied on the information you provided yourself...see above.

 

[fastpitch17]

I relied on the information you provided yourself...see above.

Any idiot (almost) would have noticed that I must have already seen the article since I had already commented on it before I checked to see if the JP also placed it in their FB feed. Just because someone says they look someplace for something it certainly doesn't mean they are relying on it for information. As I said, if they would have posted it then the spirit of the comments would have been what I was looking for,

 

[Davita]

Sorry, I don't buy that. There needs to be some assessment of items, reports, quotes etc that are included in any newspaper, anywhere, to gauge bias and put the item in some sort of perspective. I have seen JP, JGlobe, Kompas etc do this type of thing but recently an objective assessment seems to be lacking in some of the JP reports.

To provide an assessment of the report would require the reporter to have an opinion. My reading was the report was a summary and not opinionated.
If there is any question of content surely that should be directed to the Association providing the document.....not the reporter nor newspaper that recorded it.

If the summary was biased I believe the Association would complain.

I'm not doubting news-media often slant the news but I'm commenting about this particular report......not about the generalisation of Jakarta Post's reporting.

 

[Davita]

Any idiot (almost) would have noticed that I must have already seen the article since I had already commented on it before I checked to see if the JP also placed it in their FB feed.

hehehe..by your definition I'm clearly not an idiot because I didn't notice.....but those that agree with you might (almost) be offended by your definition...

I didn't even know that the paper had any relationship with FB because I'm not a member.