are domestic maids in Indonesia living as slaves?

[indcoup]

There is an interesting article in a UK newspaper about domestic servants living in "slavery" in Indonesia.

I employ two maids, and i know my wife pays them very little, but i'm not gonna feel bad over it . What do other people think about this?

Sometimes I feel that these foreign human rights groups are just out to cause trouble. Most of these young girls would be living in poverty if they couldn't work as maids anyway.

 

[Feelhip]

Well...When I was in Asia, (Malaysia, Thailand) I always had maid to help my wife at home. We always gave them what the salary of a maid was in the area, but they had all freedom to eat as much as they wanted, and we, my wife and I also care about their healthcare. Any time some thing didn't look good we brought them to our Doctor and pay for the medication.
They and we felt quite good about it. When I am back to Asia I will do the same thing again. A bit of attention can change a lot between people.

Philippe

 

[Jimbo]

Do you have a link to this article? Indonesian law is actually quite explicit on domestic servants. I am sure there are many examples of the laws being broken but they do exist and are sometimes enforced.

Most people I know employ servants at the going rate and then some and look after their servants and the servants families. Certainly for expats. Most families who can afford it tend to recruit domestic servant from poorer members of the extended family system as a way of helping them. In return the servant will get food, clothing, accomodation and schoolinh for helping out with the duties. They even eat at the same table.

Interestingly enough people in the UK who employ illegal nannies who have entered the country are to be fined upto 2000 pounds.

 

[Roy]

Jimbo, I believe the laws (in Indonesia) that you refer to are laws dealing with minimum wages, and not specifically written to apply to domestic help.

In our case, we have had two staff members for over six years. One gets Rp 600K a month, the other 500K. These wages are better than average, and exceed what they would likely earn in either a restaurant, or hotel.

As others have mentioned, we too "take care" of our staff. In many respects, they are regarded as family and for us, trust is the most important issue.

By New York City or London standards, sure, those wages would be criminal, and one could call them slaves. But, for our economy, which IS our economy, those wages are more than fair and our staff is very happy working for us, and being a part of our family.

 

[mimpimanis]

Our maid Ketut, earns Rp350,000 per month, which is less than the maids in Bali but more than the average in Lombok. I know people who are paying Rp150,000 per month & the next highest after us is our maid's sister who gets Rp250,000.
I had all Ketut's teeth done in her first few weeks with us. She has her own little "house" seperate from us. That is a room with ensuite bathroom. I bought her a VCD player after her first six months with us as a bonus as she was so good. She borrows the portable tv from our kiosk & movies to watch at night. We take her to the doctor whenever she is ill, she goes home whenever she wants for all her ceremonies. I have bought her a hp (mobile / cell phone) as a present from London. (second hand admittedly but she will still be thrilled. Not only does Ketut eat at the same table as us but if we are going out for a meal, she will accompany us, she has even been to Novotel for cocktails with us. If I try to give her the afternoon off, she will still come & potter around sometimes I just have to say to her that I want the house to myself, just to make her take some time off. So rather than living in slavery, I would say Ketut is pretty well off for a 17 year old. She certainly thinks so & is happy to be working for us.

 

[Tommy]

last time i checked minimum wage was 400.000rp so i guess your workers would be up for a raise?

 

[mimpimanis]

Hi Tommy, I have only one worker, Ketut.

Is that the minimum wage for live in staff?

Surely accomodation & food should be factored in?

If I paid her Rp400,000 & she had to stay in a rumah kos & feed herself she would be much worse off.

 

[Tommy]

oops i read it as if she worked together with her sister. I don't know if accomodation and food is or should even be considered in the law. My personal view on this if you will is that a worker should get paid properly for her/his work.. the rest is a bonus. 8)

 

[Tommy]

Sound to me like you're a really good employer though so.. keep it up!

 

[mimpimanis]

I will just add that Ketut can not read or write, so pretty much all she can do is be a maid. If she wasn't working for us, she would be working somewhere else for less pay & none of the perks.

 

[Bert Vierstra]

Do you have a link to this article?

Actually the poster is the writer of the 'article'. My guess is that he needed some traffic for his blog, and he hopes to achieve this by writing tabloid style stuff.

I think he should talk to his wife.

And.. I don't know of any 'slavery'...

 

[Tommy]

there are lots of jobs out there even for people who can't read or write, though the high-pay choices are for sure more limited compared to a scholar. Reading or writing is not necessary if you got some sort of skill and there are lots of skillful people out here. i asked around yesterday about the current minimum wage and it seems it is 500.000rp/month instead of the 400.000rp i wrote before.. and as i said.. my view on work-salary is straightforward. i pay for the work everthing else is a bonus which i give without any sense of doing anyone a favour, helping or expecting gratitude. i see your point but i think we see things a little bit different.

 

[Tommy]

and yes Bert.. this topic is abit off i think. i don't know of any form of slavery here either. i have seen reports on "bosses gone mad" on the news though but it is usually about indonesian maids working in malaysia ending up getting no money, harrassed and well... treated as a slave.

 

[made marko]

While you all know how I respect tradisi...
the plight of the female and the worker in Bali has recently hit me hard at home.
kasa kemod

 

[made marko]

It is morning and I feel less angry today...
I was not speaking of someone's maid or pembantu, or anyone even employed by an expat.
I am truely torn between 2 worlds(3) As is someone I care for.
Employment and debt and honor and adat and family...
...and me, too far away.

 

[Jimbo]

Know the feeling well Made as do others in this forum. Hang on in there.

 

[FreoGirl]

There is a man who runs a warung on the beach at Mangsit in Lombok, who's daughter went (via an agency) to Medan 3 years ago, with the intention that from Medan she would go to Saudi Arabia working as a maid.

She never went to Saudi, and is stuck in Medan for 3 years, and has not been paid. She never goes anywhere as she has no money. She has no friends, and does not know her way around Medan as she is literally stuck in the house all the time. She is only 20years old. On the rare occassion she gets to talk with her family on the phone, her boss insists she speak Bahasa Indonesian (instead of her own language Sasak) with her family, so he can hear what she is saying.

She has pleaded with her father to send her money so she can get back to Lombok. The father has spoken to the boss, who promised to start paying the girl, but has not so far. It is always 'next month'.

The agency don't want to know about it. The police don't want to know about it (unless someone gives them some money). The family are frightened if they make too much fuss the boss will kick their daughter out on the street and then she will be homeless in Medan with no money and who knows what could happen to her.

I only found out about this last week. I've asked my husband to find out more about the situation - just want to confirm it is as they are saying. I'm going to try and raise money to get her home (unfortunately I can't afford to pay), and then we will send someone trustworthy, and strong, to get her and bring her home.

So it does go on. There doesn't seem to be anywhere for this girl to go, or for her family to go. Which is WHY people KNOW they can get away with it.
:evil:

 

[Sergio]

reading this post all I could think of is how much worse it could have been if she would have gone to Saudi Arabia as a maid... she would have been in a totally different culture and should this have happened there it would have been a life sentence! Good God why would some poor girl even take that chance?

I don't understand why she can't leave though? Surly she is not chained to a post... how much could a ticket from Medan to Lombok possibly be? As little as the ticket is, it might be more then the family has but 3 years? I would make sure this all is not just a story made-up by a dad trying to get his daughter back for free but that would be hard to find out I guess. Good luck!


OH MY GOD!!! I just realized you could just as well have been talking about my wife!!! it has been 3 years now that my wife has been stuck here in Canada and she has not gotten paid either!!! She is very unhappy and her Dad wants here back as well!!!

AAAHHHHH!!!!! :shock:

 

[Tracey]

I recently saw a Doc about young girls in Medan (I think from memory) that were talked into being housekeepers for rich families in some other part of Indonesia (I was tired).

Unfortunately they were kept hostages in whorehouses & initially these younge girls aged 11 & 13 just smiled etc & never had intercourse, but they were told by their bosses that their families needed money & so had suggested they start having intercourse with men for money!

After 17 months a local lady & her husband broke in & stole these girls (as well as others)

To cut a long story short the 11 yr old girls Father had become a mute since he fou8nd out his daughter was no longer a virgin, the family was EXTREMELY Poor, but he had no pride at all left now that his daughter had beebn ruined... His wife was deceased & he had 3 other kids...

The 13 yr old was welcomed home with open arms & kissed & hugged, the saddest thing was she told the interviewer that although she had been rescued from a bad situation that it was not so bad to know she was helping her family, then they told her NO money was ever given to the family & she was very distraught about that..

But then they showed her talking to a group of younge girls & the girls were so interested & excited to hear about this girls adventures...
The lady whom rescued her said that about 50% of the girls in the area would go through similar experience as there was literally no way of making money there so the temptation to make money & work elsewhere was a big enough lure!

I sat there crying for the 11 yr old as she had no idea what had happened to her really she was so confused & her poor Father sat in the corner rocking back & fourth unable to look at her or say anything!!!

 

[FreoGirl]

Sergio, this girl is 20. She has no money, and no idea how to get back to Lombok, and as you are probably aware, young women do not travel alone in Indonesia. She is frightened to run away, and her boss is a control freak - she can't even talk Sasak with her family on the phone. We worked out the cost would be about 1.5 Million to get her home, which is a lot of money for a family like hers.

Anyway, since posting this, I have talked to another expat. She has talked to a trusted local who is from Medan. That man and the girls' father are meeting today to see if there is something his family can do to get the girl out of the current situation.

This is not a scam to get his daughter home free. I just happended to hear about it from my local husband, the father himself has never mentioned it to any of the expats here.