The government does not demand a standard employment contract for foreign domestic workers, and because of this, workers are denied opportunities for proper redress against abusive employers, said Women's Aid Organisation.

In light of the recent public fury over the abuse case of West Papuan domestic worker Nirmala Bonet, the women's advocacy group took the opportunity to press for a series of recommendations, including asking that the Human Resources Ministry implement a standard employment contract spelling out working hours, rest days, medical benefits, and mode of payment.

At present, direct recruitment allow agencies to individually determine standards of protection and the format of employment contracts, which is only signed between employers and agents.

This practice should be stopped, and the agencies should be regulated by government, said WAO.

Moreover, the organisation pointed out that agents are not even held responsible for failing to enforce their self-styled contracts.

"The government tells us that they have a 'model contract' for agents. But we tell them that unless the government enforces one single contract, that spells out all the responsibilities of the employer and the employee, only then can we claim to give workers the right to redress," said its executive secretary Ivy Josiah.

Blacklist system

And while the government has promised to devise a system for screening employers, WAO said the authorities should backtrack a little and simply blacklist employers and agents who have committed offences.

At present, such employers are allowed to be 'recycled' into the system and hire new domestic workers, while agents are not rapped for exploitative practices.

Abuse at the scale of Nirmala's - whose photographic evidences of abuse shocked the nation - occurs at that level because agents are exempted from the routine inspection of their charge.

WAO, who shelters and provides counselling to abused domestic workers, pointed out that all five Indonesian women under its charge are victims of not just routine abuses, but significant physical beatings and mental harassment.

The press yesterday met with Inawati Karto, who on top of being subjected to daily beatings during her eight months working for a family of four, said her screams would be rewarded with her employers stuffing her mouth with cili padi.

Inawati, a 21-year-old from central Jawa, said her employers would pull violently at her breasts if they were displeased with her; forced her to drink urine if she was unable to wake up and lick the baby's shit from a soiled diaper if they were unhappy with her work.

More than routine abuse

Other punishments included hot iron gills being pressed to her hands, and having her hair yanked to the point that patches of hair would fall off.

As part of their psychological torment, Inawati said her female employer would compel her to take off her clothes and lie on the floor with her in sexual poses, and later take photographs of her while showering.

The photographs, according to the employer, was used to "get customers for her", since she had already 'bought' Inawati from the agency.

While Inawati managed to obtain redress at the courts - her employer has been charged under Section 323 of the Penal Code - the legal process will prove another significant hurdle.

Currently, workers who claim abuse have to endure long periods of unemployment awaiting trial, and prevented to switch employers or earn a living in another home.

WAO wants this changed. Immigration policy should provide migrants workers with special permission to work while undergoing the trial or investigation process, they said.

Remand powers abused?

Also necessary, is the fast-tracking of investigation procedures - from police work to medical assessments, the women's group said.

And in practice however, the police have shown little hesitance in remanding foreign workers based on complaints by employers, but not the other way around, it said.

19-year-old Makrivartun Yusrodi from Central Jawa, Indonesia, who had escaped from her employer's home after six and a half months, was arrested and placed under remand by the police, three months after her employer lodged a theft complaint against her.

Atun, for short, claimed her employer began abusing her - both physically and mentally - by the third month of work.

She said the abuses include burning her with a hot rice pot, hitting her forehead against a door, hitting her with a spoon, broom, and pipe, forcibly imposed a haircut on her, slapped her and stepped on her.

"It begins with one kick here and another punch there. And soon, it becomes the normal response to everything that they don't like to see me doing," she said.

Prior to her 'escape', Atun said her employer, a lawyer, had threatened that if she were to lodge a report about the abuse, he would in turn lodge another report claiming that she stole jewellery from the house.

According to WAO president Meera Samanther, the Petaling Jaya district police have closed the case on Atun's abuse claims without showing any attempt to conduct proper investigation.

No court order

"We were told by investigators that they tried to get permission to enter the employer's home to find evidence of items said to have been used in the abuse...but they also told us that they made no attempt to get court order to enable them to get evidence," said Samanther.

However, the police were ever willing to place Atun under remand over allegations made by her employer.

Following an appeal by WAO that the case be reopened, the deputy public prosecutor's office in April promised in writing that they would look into it. Until now, there has been no news about the investigations.

And sometimes, cases that do receive proper investigation will still get stuck administratively, said the organisation.

Juartina Taman, a 19 year old from North Sumatera, who has alleged physical assault by her employer, a laundry manager, has asked that her contractual obligations be made void.

The Labour Office, who is overseeing the case, have failed to obtain a meeting with her employer, despite having summoned him four times. At the final meeting on May 7, the employer's brother brought along a medical certificate.

Labour MOU

But the realisation that Malaysia foreign labour policy is illiberal, is nothing new to the government.

Josiah said discussions on extending labour law - that protects citizens and permanent residents - to legal immigrant workers was attempted in 2002 by a cabinet committee chaired by then deputy premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

However, "things appeared to have reached a stalemate" until the Nirmala case came along.

WAO said it has been invited to meet with Internal Security Ministry secretary-general Aseh Che Mat for a dialogue, which it hopes is more than just a knee-jerk reaction to a high profile case.

According to Josiah, the right document that can feature all the new elements to protect domestic workers, is the bilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) on migrant labour, currently in the final leg of being hammered out by the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia.

"I think the MOU will be promising because the Indonesian non-governmental groups have asked that a number of protective clauses be included. Problem is, it is focussed on protecting other migrant workers, and mentions little about domestic workers."

Indonesian groups have been publicly pressuring both governments to outlaw direct recruitment of foreign domestic workers under the MOU, but such a proposal have met much resistance.

Gender discrimination

In any case, the Malaysian government - Women, Family and Community Development Ministry including - should take heed of the proposals by non-governmental groups in both countries, she said.

An engendered look at the laws and policies of hiring foreign domestic help is necessary, she said.

"Gender is an important factor, and as women, domestic workers tend to occupy the lowest and thus most exploited strata in the global division of labour facing forms of discrimination that includes physical, social and sexual abuse," said WAO.

Earlier, labour group Tenaganita said that the government should be made accountable for domestic worker abuse for failing to institute laws for their protection.

Its director Irene Fernandez pointed out that last year alone, over 50,000 domestic workers ran away from their employers, out of a total of over 230,000 domestic workers officially employed.

On Sunday, another alleged abuse case hit the limelight when Indonesian Asniar Ulierinawati, 26, ran away from her employer's home in Ipoh exhibiting cut scars and bruises on her forearms, head and other body parts. Her 39-year-old employer has since been placed under a seven-day police remand.

But just yesterday however, the Jakarta Post reported the death of domestic worker Sri Wahyuni from East Jawa, said to have escaped from her employer's home in Selangor on May 21. However, no details were given on the circumstances surrounding her death.