reallives17

Work Load, Hours of Work, and Rest
No one wants to be a domestic, but due to financial reasons some have no
choice. But this does not mean that employers should take advantage of us. We
are human too.
—Atin, a twenty-one–year-old former domestic worker who started working as a
domestic when she was eleven, Yogyakarta, December 1, 2004.
The child domestics Human Rights Watch interviewed typically worked fourteen
to eighteen hours a day. These children worked seven days a week, with no
holiday, although some were allowed an annual one-week leave at Eid-ul-Fitr.
Human Rights Watch also interviewed five children who were allowed to visit
their families more than just for Eid holidays, such as once in six months or once
a month. The girls we interviewed were typically required to clean the house,
launder the entire household’s clothes by hand, iron the clothes, prepare the
family’s meals, and take care of the employer’s children. All of the children
Human Rights Watch interviewed lived with their employers, and none had a
written contract specifying wages, types of work, rest, or vacation. Rather, we
learned that oral agreements regarding wages, hours of work, and tasks were
fluid—changing based on the whim of the employer.
Dewi, who began working when she was sixteen, explained, “My employer was
from the same village and he asked me to work for his family in Jakarta. I was told
that I would be babysitting. When I got to Jakarta I initially began taking care of
the three-month-old baby. But then I was told to clean the house, wash dishes,
wash the clothes, and cook food. I didn’t like my employer—they never let me go
out or allowed me to take rest during the day.”78 Dewi began crying during the
interview, she said, “I did not know that I had to do everything. I was their slave
told to do whatever and whenever they wanted.”79
Nearly every domestic worker Human Rights Watch spoke with told us that they
cared for their employer’s children, in addition to other duties. For example,
Kartika began domestic service when she was fourteen. She described her
nineteen-hour workday:
There were four adults and three children aged five, three, and two. I woke up at
4:00 a.m. . . . cooked, cleaned, washed clothes, and swept the floor. When the
children would wake up, I would bathe the children. After bathing them, I would
sing a lullaby so the baby would sleep. When the baby was asleep, I helped the
grandmother to bathe because she was too old. I then finished cooking and took
care of the children. When the parents came home from the office, the children
would be with them. I would then iron the clothes and get dinner ready. I would
go to sleep by 11:00 p.m. I had no day off. I worked 7 days a week .80
Titin had a similar workday:
I woke up at 5:00 a.m. I washed clothes, cooked food for the husband, wife, and
their three children. I cleaned the house. I also took care of the children. I
would go to sleep at 9:00 p.m. The work was tiring and there was a lot of work to
take care of the children. The baby would wake up in the middle of the night, so I
had to wake up and feed the baby and change her diaper. I was always tired. I
was only twelve then. I had no day off.81
Domestic workers sometimes also help with their employers’ small businesses.
Vina, who began working when she was thirteen, described her long workday:
I helped sell noodles in the street and did housework. I would start selling
noodles at 5:30 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. After that I would shop for groceries and then
return home to prepare noodles to sell the next day. I cooked more than five
kilos of noodles a day. After that I would wash clothes. I was paid Rp.200,000 [U.
S.$22.22] per month. I was exhausted and had no time to rest. I would go to sleep
at 12:00 a.m.82
Most child domestic workers said that they had no time to rest, but some said
they were able to take a one-hour break during the workday. In describing her
seventeen-hour workday, Ria recalled, “I would often get tired, but I was able to
rest for an hour when the child was resting.” 83
Young children may not be suited to the tasks they are asked to perform because
they lack the necessary experience or because they lack the strength and
endurance for such tasks. When Kartika was fourteen she said she worked
nineteen hours a day. She told us, “The two-year-old child would sometimes hit
me. I was tired and he kept hitting me so I hit him back. I did not know what to
do.”84
An ILO-IPEC study on child domestic workers in Indonesia concluded that child
domestics perform the same amount of work as adult domestic workers, which
tends to surpass their physical capacity and stamina.85 The ILO-IPEC study noted
that working long hours with no time for rest and recreation, or for socializing
with peers affects a child’s mental, physical, social, and intellectual development.
86
Under the Indonesian labor code, workers employed in the formal sector may only
work seven hours a day and forty hours a week in a six-day work week or eight
hours a day and forty hours a week in a five-day work week.87 Workers in the
formal sector have the right to at least half an hour of rest after working four
hours consecutively; one day of rest after six workdays a week, or two days after
five workdays a week; and, at minimum, a yearly period of rest of twelve
workdays, if they have worked for twelve months consecutively.88 The
explanatory comments accompanying the work hour provisions of the law
acknowledges that “[e]mploying workers beyond normal working hours must be
avoided because workers/laborers must have enough time to take a rest and
recover their fitness.”89 But those who work in the informal sectors, such as
domestic workers, are completely excluded from such protections of the law. In
other words, employers of domestic workers are not legally obligated to limit the
workday, provide breaks during the day, or give weekly or annual holidays.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees children the right “to be
protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely
to be . . . harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social
development.”90 Moreover, state parties to the convention are obligated to
regulate the hours and conditions of employment and to ensure that children
have adequate time for rest, leisure, and play.91 Notably, the Indonesian Child
Protection Act promises every child the right “to rest and enjoy free time, to mix
with other children of his/her own age, to play, enjoy recreation.”92 Indonesia
must amend its labor laws to ensure that all working children, including those in
the informal sector, between the ages of fifteen and eighteen have reasonable
hours of work, adequate time for rest, leisure, and, as explained below, education
during the workday.