Domestic workers law is 'modern-day slavery'
A little girl in Indonesia should not be forced to spend her formative years believing her mother had died. For three years however, her mother Suria, who had come to Malaysia to work, was prevented by her employer from leaving her home or communicating with her family.
A little girl in Indonesia should not be forced to spend her formative years believing her mother had died. For three years however, her mother Suria, who had come to Malaysia to work, was prevented by her employer from leaving her home or communicating with her family.
A family in Cambodia who hoped that their daughter, who came to work in Malaysia, would send back enough money so that her younger siblings could go to school. Instead they received the broken, lifeless body of their daughter, starved to death by her employer.
A 14-year-old girl should never have been allowed to work as a 'servant' in a Malaysian home, yet this was the reality of Norah. She was trafficked into Malaysia, severely sexually abused by her employer and left to die. The doctors at the hospital say it is a miracle that she survived.
None of this should have happened – but it did.
These are real stories known to us, which only represent a snapshot of the widespread reality of systematic abuses domestic workers face in Malaysia.
As a decent society we must do everything within our power to prevent any such abhorrent mistreatment and discrimination from happening.
We must also expect swift justice and reparation for the survivors and proportionately severe punishment for the perpetrators.
These are basic standards that we should adhere to and demand for everyone, not privileges only enjoyed by few.
For almost three decades, however, civil society's calls to the human resources and home ministers for legislative changes to ensure strong protection of domestic workers' human rights and implementation of policies to prevent the enslavement of women in our homes.
These have been met with contempt, dismissal or at most, silence.
'Unacceptable in any democratic country'
The Domestic Workers Campaign Coalition (the Coalition) has recently discovered that the Ministry of Human Resources proposed new regulations, the "Regulations (Terms & Conditions of Employment) of Domestic Servants 2014", one of the most significant documents on the protection of domestic workers proposed in Malaysia.
It must be underscored that there were no attempts to consult us, a coalition of eleven organisations known to be committed to fighting trafficking of persons and promoting workers’ rights and women’s rights.
Beyond that, the process of legislating such a crucial document, involving the lives of several hundred thousand women and thousands more Malaysians, in a sector of work fraught with human rights violations, has lacked transparency and meaningful engagement with domestic workers, whose lives are directly affected by these regulations, and with civil society.
This is unacceptable in any democratic country.
Upon review of the proposed regulations, it is appalling that a document of this significance neither mentions the fact that domestic workers (as per the universally accepted norm of equality and non-discrimination) are entitled to all human rights, nor spells out comprehensive actions to ensure those rights are upheld in practice.
The human resources minister has instead chosen to persist in the blatant discrimination against domestic workers by continuing to classify them as "servants" thereby excluding them from fundamental provisions in the Employment Act of 1955 that are enjoyed by all other workers (“employees”).
Recognition of their work as work is fundamental as a first step in protecting domestic workers' rights. Their inclusion under all Malaysian labour laws as well as additional regulations to fully prevent abuses, that frequently happen due to the nature of domestic work, must guaranteed immediately.
Moreover shockingly, there are no significant attempts in these proposed regulations to prevent known widespread violations of basic rights of domestic workers in Malaysia. For example, in almost all of the cases handled by organisations within the Domestic Workers Campaign Coalition, the passport of the domestic workers was withheld by their employer or kept with their agent.
Without their passport, domestic workers are not only bonded in their employer’s home, but also live in daily fear of arrest, detention and deportation. Of these cases, where a police report has been made, the State has failed to enforce the 1966 Passports Act against the employers.
Under the proposed regulation, where are the provisions to ensure that domestic workers can seek redress and access justice?
In the case of 14-year-old Norah, who suffered multiple forms of severe abuse at the hands of the employer, where does the proposed regulation ensure the crucial protections for the domestic worker against violence?
When the government knows that thousands of women have been forced into contracts against their full consent, isolated in private homes, where they are vulnerable to a host of attacks on their dignity and rights, why has it chosen not to be proactive in preventing violence and ensuring full access to remedies?
The government is obligated to ensure that they take measures not only to respond to violence and discrimination, but also to prevent it from happening to any one within the country, regardless of whom they are.
Furthermore, the proposed regulation fails to provide provisions stating the number of work hours per day, due compensation for overtime, or adequate remuneration if the worker is ‘on call’. Even in the case of maltreatment, abuse or violations of the terms and conditions, the domestic worker is not able to terminate the contract.
Domestic worker’s right to decide who to talk to
Additionally, no provisions that protect the domestic worker’s right to privacy, freedom of association, or freedom of movement are included in the proposed regulation.
The daily rest period must not be determined solely by the employer, but should be agreed upon between the employer and the domestic worker, and stipulated in the employment contract.
The domestic worker has the right and responsibility to control her own bank account, banking documents, and remit monies to her family. While the proposed regulations state that the domestic worker should be allowed to communicate, it explicitly states ‘communicate with her family’.
The employer must not have the power to decide with whom she is allowed to communicate, a basic freedom that any person would enjoy.
These comments only capture some of the serious problems with the proposed regulations.
A stronger and comprehensive critique of the proposed regulation is required. Such a legislative process must include the voices and full participation of domestic workers and civil society representatives from source countries and Malaysia.
The Domestic Workers’ Campaign Coalition is prepared to collaborate with the state to carry out a comprehensive dialogue and ensure domestic workers are included in this process.
The Malaysian public must know that for almost three decades now calls have been made to the Malaysian government to end the discrimination against domestic workers, enact legislation and enforce policies to stop the systematic enslavement of domestic workers.
These regulations, the only concrete response by the Malaysian government to these demands, completely fail to dismantle employment and immigration policies, and fail to change harmful cultural attitudes that have enabled the institutionalization of modern-day slavery of domestic workers.
It is downright unacceptable that we continue to sit at the drawing block, fighting over whether women working in our homes deserve basic rights and fundamental freedoms.
To be free from violence, to communicate with whomever they choose, to be paid monthly at least a minimum wage equal to other workers in the country, to be given a room that is safe and clean to live, to have three full meals daily, to be free from emotional, sexual, physical abuse, not to be forced to work or be on call for more than eight hours a day, to have a full 24-hour rest day a week, to hold onto one’s own passport – these are not lofty dreams.
If we cannot agree on these fundamentals, then are we to assume that the Malaysian government is choosing to rubber stamp modern day slavery?
We, the Domestic Worker Campaign Coalition, call on Malaysian citizens and people of conscience to demand that the Human Resources Minister:
- Recognise domestic work as work;
We urge people of conscience to leave comments to the proposed regulation on the Ministry’s website , contact the minister’s office, and utilize any other means to make these calls heard.
If the Malaysian government thinks it can pass regulations without the active participation of the Malaysian public, then it needs to relearn what democratic engagement and good governance truly means.
Domestic workers are workers, they are women, they are people with dignity and rights equal to every other person.
We are long overdue in ending these sustained forms of modern day slavery in domestic work. We have to take substantive action with great urgency.
The path to development, economic competitiveness and real growth is not through the enslavement of workers and exploitation, but through equal treatment and rights protection. We must collectively ensure this.
The DOMESTIC WORKERS CAMPAIGN COALITION is made up of Tenaganita, Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO), Coordination of Action Research on AIDs and Mobility (Caram Asia), Pusat Kebajikan Good Shepherd, Archdiocesan Office for Human Development, Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC), Change Your World, Liber8, and Migrant Ministry
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