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One Paid Day Off Campaign
By: MTUC
Posted: May 8 09
Witnessed: 1227 times
Regions: Malaysia
Issues: Labor unions
Tags: Domestic Workers, Malaysia, MTUC, vai 2008
Families in Malaysia employ some 400,000 migrant domestic workers, primarily from Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India. Yet, domestic workers are not recognized as workers and they do not enjoy the benefits and protection under the law as such. Employers continued to refer to them as maids, helpers, servants. In law, they are defined only as domestic servants under the Employment Act 1955. Consequently, they do not enjoy the benefits and rights enshrined in the Employment Act and in other labour laws like the Industrial Relations Act or the Trade Union Act. Their only right is the right to claim wages through the Labour Court.
Due to the lack of protection and recognition as workers, many migrant domestic workers encounter physical, sexual and psychological abuse. Their wages are not paid, they do not get off days and they work long hours – 7 days a week, 16-18 hours a day. The workers, often referred to as maids or servants are confined to the workplace and their passports are held.
The numerous violations include excessive deduction of wages, food deprivation and cramped and unsanitary living space and conditions. Many domestic workers are made to do two jobs or more, which would include working at the business place of the employer.
Furthermore, employers ensure that their domestic workers remain isolated, made solely dependant on the family by cutting the domestic workers all means of communication even with their own family back in the country of origin.
All these forms of institutionalized exploitation of the domestic workers have been ongoing for the last 30 years. The government continues to maintain the same form of labour – unprotected labour within domestic work. It is clear that the above forms of intense rights violations are nothing but bonded labour with intense servitude and debt bondage. This constitutes Trafficking in Persons.
Malaysia, having passed the Anti Trafficking in Persons Act in 2007, and bringing it into enforcement in February 2008, has yet to address or even look into the whole dimension of recruitment, placement and employment of domestic workers in its current form – which we reiterate is a form of trafficking in labour. Furthermore, the US government in its status report on Trafficking in Persons has included domestic work in its current reality as servitude and form of bonded labour.
There is a bit of good news: the increased reports of violent abuses and denying of labour rights of domestic workers, coupled with regional campaigning has led Indonesian women turning down Malaysia as a destination country. However, instead of learning from this, the Malaysian government remains adamant in its treatment of migrant domestic workers and has now begun to recruit domestic workers from Nepal, Vietnam and Laos. This strategy shows that Malaysia does not want to address the rights violations and continues to keep running to new source countries to get the domestic workers.
This form of escapism and arrogance will not deal with the root causes of the problem. The cycle of abuse among migrant domestic worker will continue, and unless the Malaysian government protects the rights of domestic workers by guaranteeing the rights through the law and setting up of mechanism it will not cease.
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