Indonesia will use its Memorandum of Understanding with Malaysia as a benchmark for the recruitment and protection of Indonesian domestic helpers with other destination countries. Indonesia’s Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah said the MoU provides a better and more comprehensive protection through regulations such as salary, weekly rest day, social security and law enforcement.
Via the ministry’s official Twitter account, she said Indonesia is developing bilateral cooperation with several other countries on workers’ protection. Based on Indonesia‘s law, Indonesian workers can only be placed in a destination country that has regulations that protect foreign labourers. According to Ida Fauziyah, Malaysia has fulfilled many of the criteria set by the Indonesian government in the MoU signed on 1 April. It includes the implementation of a single channel system, providing information on local rules, laws, customs and culture to the PDI; ascertaining only eligible employers hire PDIs and ensuring they comply with the law; and sharing of information on employers, PDIs and agencies for screening and blacklisting purposes.
On 2 April, Malaysia’s Human Resources Minister Datuk Seri M. Saravanan said Malaysia is always committed to implementing the MoU as agreed by the two countries. However, he stressed the government could only monitor workers who came legally and that the source country must also play a role.
