Homeworkers Fighting Against Work Informalization

Homeworkers Portrayed

The ever-increasing phenomenon of homeworkers has been a crucial issue in the

world of labor and employment. In Indonesia, based on Badan Pusat Statistik (BPS; National

Body of Statistics) data regarding Unpaid Family Worker and Free Worker in the

Agricultural Sector, it is estimated that the number of homeworkers has reached 23.59

millionmore than a fifth of the countrys total working population.1

Unfortunately, despite its huge number, the presence of homeworkers has not been

acknowledged by the government. International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention on

Home Work has not been ratified either. These ommissions have resulted in homeworkers not

being accommodated within normative rights fulfilment frameworks as workers under the

Employment Law No. 13 The Year of 2003, in spite of their actual position within real

working relations.

Therefore, the working relation between homeworkers and their employers has

become highly unequal. Their bargaining position is very weak because they usually do not

have a written work contract. They are also paid very little for a very high target of

production and very long working hours. Their pay status, therefore, falls far below the living

wage line. Their occupational health and safety are also disregarded, and they lack access to

social insurance and protection. At the same time, their work usually has a high level of

health risk for them and their families such as sickness from sitting for a long time, exposure

to chemicals, dust, and materials that may cause allergies.

1
--, Pekerja Rumahan, Kemiskinan tanpa Perhatian, Koran Republika, 26 Agustus 2015, accesed from
http://www.republika.co.id/berita/koran/podium/15/08/26/ntojkg13-pekerja-rumahan-kemiskinan-tanpa-
perhatian on November 19th 2016.
Homeworkers as Victims of Work Informalization

Homeworking can be seen as a deepening of the trend of work informalization,

following outsourcing. With more informalized work, the bargaining position between

employers and employees becomes more unequal. Whenever homeworkers demand their

normative rights, employers can give their jobs to new workers. This precariousness is related

to Indonesias high rate of unemployment and the character of the home workhighly

deskilled such as taking out loose cotton yarns or peeling onions.

With the deepening of work informalization as a result of the states weak capacity

and will to discipline the employment relation, regulations include more loopholes that can be

used by employers to avoid their duties regarding the normative rights of the employees. By

employing home workers, employers can avoid complying with strict work contracts, a living

wage, social insurance and protection, occupational health and safety; they can also cut the

managerial and working space costs.

This infiltration of a work regime into the domestic space of houses as physical place

and families as cultural space also gives employers many benefits. These benefits provide the

potential for employers to intensify working burdens in order to minimize value-chain-related

risks as well as to maximize profit revenue. They do so by employing under-aged workers

outside of the law and disciplining work by using important people in the communities as

intermediaries. Unless stopped, this trend will get even worse and the workers, as well as

workers-to-be in general, will become more incapacitated in facing the maneuvers of

employers.

The Pressing Need for Homeworkers to Organize

The informal, scattered, and domestic character of home working is a hard challenge

to homeworkers assembling and fighting for their rights. In contrast, there are still many
home workers who do not realize that they are being exploited because they feel their work is

only to supplement their husbands pay and to use their leisure time. It is not surprising,

therefore, to see that the union density for home workers is very small; only 4778 out of

23.59 million home workers have been organized.2

In order for home workers to be recognized within the scope of the Employment Law,

organizing is becoming more urgent. By organizing, home workers can leverage their

bargaining position with both their intermediaries and their employers. They will also be able

to represent themselves in front of the government to push for more data collection,

recognition, and protection in their working relation, as well as to push the government to

discipline employers who implement the highly informal and exploitative working relation.

The need for home worker to organize is should also be realized by formal worker

unions, because if this practice is not repressed, the trend of informalization will deepen and

widen, becoming the future working relation for workers who now enjoy a more formal and

covered status. This informal working relation is also a precondition for a weak bargaining

position of formal worker unions. With the high availability of home workers, the employers

can always shift the workloads of formal factory workers to the home workers if they decide

that the formal workers have asked for too many rights.

2
Dardiri Dardak, Pentingnya Pengakuan dan Perlindungan Bagi Pekerja Rumahan di Indonesia, Program
Mampu, May 4, 2016, accessed from http://www.mampu.or.id/id/news/pentingnya-pengakuan-dan-
perlindungan-bagi-pekerja-rumahan-di-indonesia on November 19, 2016.