Migrant workers' rights group Tenaganita today reiterated its call for a better protection of foreign domestic workers in the wake of a court decision against a homemaker for injuring her Indonesian maid.

irene fernandez interview 251108 08 Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez said that the 18-year-jail sentence imposed on Yim Pek Ha for grievously hurting Nirmala Bonat "must bring out a lot of soul searching in how domestic workers are treated and employed in the country".

"Will the 18 years imprisonment be a wake-up call to employers and to all of us?" asked Fernandez in a statement today.

She said that it was time for everyone to critically address the conditions that enabled employers' such as Yim to systematically and continuously harm her domestic worker.

"The power of the employer to hold her domestic workers passport; the non-recognition of Nirmala as a worker under the Employment Act: no off-day but work very long hours for seven days a week ; and kept in isolation gave Yim the confidence and the power to abuse and belief that Nirmala will never be able to seek redress.

"It is these conditions that must be addressed. Yim will pay through her jail sentence for the grievous hurt caused on Nirmala," she said.

However she added that it was not only Yim and her family who were responsible and she blamed the government too for being equally responsible.

"The conditions of work are not regulated. The employer is given the right to hold the passport of the domestic worker.

"There is neither a law nor a standardised contract to protect Nirmala and all other domestic workers.

"The government provided the condition of isolation by not giving a paid day off. And consequently, it opened the doors for abuse and exploitation," she said.

Time for ministry to act

Fernandez said that while it could be an end for Nirmala's case, there were many more Nirmalas in the country who were in a vulnerable situation.

She said that Tenaganita has handled more than 188 cases of domestic workers who have been abused, raped and exploited with intense human rights violations.

She stressed that the government must attack the root causes of such forms of abuse and exploitation, adding that Tenaganita has launched a campaign to recognise domestic workers as workers.

Fernandez said that as a priority, the government must immediately recognise the conditions under which these domestic workers were working.

"There is a need to give a paid day off to all domestic workers and a standardised contract that will clearly state the terms and conditions of employment," she added.

She also urged the Human Resources Ministry to stop being silent as it is part of the abuse and exploitation of domestic workers.

"The ministry must do justice to more than half a million women who are working as domestic workers in this country.

"It is only when domestic workers are recognised as workers and protected through an effective legislation that we can say justice is done to Nirmala and all domestic workers," she said.

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