Support an International Law on Domestic Work
Nur went to Malaysia to work as a domestic worker and she almost never returned home.
Nur worked for two years without a day off and without any payment. Finally, when she decided to return to Indonesia, her employer refused. Every year Nur asked to return home until after five long years she threatened to commit suicide. Her employer sent her back to the agent, who took her to Johor (south of Malaysia) and told her that she will go back to Indonesia from there. She was brought to a nearby beach and told to swim to a boat that was located quite a distance from the coast. The agent promised her that upon getting on the boat she'd be taken to Indonesia.
Nur doesn't swim, but was forced to do so as her only chance to return home. While trying to swim to the boat, she was hit by a big wave and fell unconscious. The bags that she was carrying disappeared and the only wages (RM1,000 or USD310) that the employers gave her for five years of work went missing too.
Nur was lucky; she woke up the next day and found herself covered in a banana leaf by the beach. Someone had rescued her, but thought she was dead. With the help of Tenaganita, Nur won her labour case and US$6,000 for her five years of labour, but the employers now claim that they are bankrupt. After seven long years, Nur returned empty handed to her family in October 2010 to find her husband had remarried and her family had moved on.
Nur's case is one of thousands of cases of Indonesian women who went with big dreams to Malaysia, only for their dreams to be shattered and their lives to be broken into pieces. There are at least 300,000 documented migrant domestic workers in Malaysia and none of these workers are entitled to basic labour rights under the law.
Domestic workers often endure slavery like conditions. An international agreement that recognises that domestic work is work and domestic workers are entitled to be treated fairly as workers is needed. However, neither the Indonesian nor Malaysian Governments supported a proposed domestic workers convention at the International Labour Conference last year.
Support the campaign to ask the governments to vote to adopt the Convention and Recommendation on domestic work at the International Labour Conference in June 2011.
Dear Ministers,
Indonesia and Malaysia have both expressed support for woman's rights and both are signatories to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Yet the rights of some of the most marginalised women in your country are being ignored - Domestic Workers.
I am concerned that you did not support the proposed Domestic Workers Convention at the International Labour Conference last year.
About one third of all female employment in Asia is for domestic work, but most countries - including Malaysia and Indonesia - do not include domestic workers in laws protecting basic labour rights. The proposed convention would simply recognise that domestic workers should be entitled to the same human rights as other workers. It would stop disagreements between countries over the labour rights of domestic workers.
I therefore join the call for the governments of Indonesian and Malaysian to vote for the adoption of the Convention and Recommendation on Domestic Work at the International Labour Conference in June this year, to ensure that there will be an international standard for the rights of domestic workers
I sign this letter in solidarity with the domestic workers in Malaysia and Indonesia, and with the organizations that work to protect their rights.
