KUCHING: Some 50 people attended a forum titled ‘Placement and Protection of Indonesian Workers in Malaysia’ organised by the Indonesian Consulate here yesterday.
The main speaker at the forum was Agus Triyanto, who is the labour attaché in the Indonesian embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
During the two-session forum, he spoke about the amended conditions to hire informal workers, especially domestic workers or housemaids.
“Before the amended MOU between Indonesia and Malaysia, housemaids were subject to overwork and abuse.
“Following the amendments, workers can hold on to their passports as that is their national identity, given one day of rest, salary paid into a bank account and in accordance to market forces.
“If there are cases of runaway workers, the employer will have the compensation either in the form of money or worker replacement,” said Agus.
He said that housemaids have limited abilities and that they are not caregivers, caretakers or babysitters, as they are not trained in those capacities.
“A housemaid can only do housekeeping, cooking, ironing and laundry.
“They are just humans like everyone else,” he added, pointing out that there had been too many cases of worker abuse in the country, from unpaid salaries to physical and sexual abuse, among others.
The forum was attended by employers of Indonesian workers including employment agencies, government departments and private companies.
Also present were Indonesian Consuls Bedjo Santoso and Achmad Djatmiko.
Sarawak Labour Department director August Buma was due to talk later during the forum.