"In the plan drawn up based on the 2017 Domestic Workers Roadmap, we envisage `zero` domestic worker exports by the year 2017," Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said here on Wednesday.
The minister acknowledged, however, that the implementation of the plan would face constraints as the government would have to provide alternative employment for domestic helpers in addition to the fact that the state could not forbid its citizens to seek jobs overseas.
Yet, for the sake of Indonesian migrant workers` protection in the country where they were placed, the roadmap required that any Indonesian worker in the informal sector should have clear position and should be recognized by the foreign country concerned.
"So, there must be recognition of their work based on their position and profession. Placement countries must recognize them as workers with clear positions. They should be contract workers with certain rights regarding working hours, holidays, income based on minimal wage standards or social insurance like workers in the formal sector," the minister said.
So, beginning in 2017, Indonesian migrant workers to be placed overseas should have clear positions such as cooks, housekeepers or caregivers. "Their positions must be clearly stated with clear wage standards," the minister added.
(Uu.A014/HAJM/S012)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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