Indonesia’s manpower minister is seeking Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng’s support in strengthening protections for Indonesian migrant workers in the SAR, Indonesia’s national news agency Antara reported on Thursday.
Ida Fauziyah was in Macao this week and met with Indonesian consul-general to Hong Kong and Macao, Yul Edison, on Wednesday. She told media she would also meet with Ho while in the city, and “ask for support” for Indonesian workers, who make up Macao’s third biggest foreign population.
“We hope that this inaugural working visit will intensify the manpower diplomacy running between Indonesia and the governments of Hong Kong and Macao, especially to bolster protection for Indonesian migrant workers,” she noted.
The SAR’s treatment of migrant workers – more often called non-resident workers – came under fire from the United Nations (UN) last year.
[See more: The Philippine consul general calls for helpers to be covered by minimum wage laws]
A report compiled by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights highlighted “exploitative conditions” faced by some non-resident workers, expressing concern over the large number of domestic helpers employed without formal contracts – and therefore excluded from the social security system.
The report also criticised Macao’s exclusion of domestic helpers from minimum wage protection – something the Philippine consul general has been calling for. Macao’s new trade union law, meanwhile, bars non-resident workers from forming unions.
The government has both refuted allegations that it does too little to protect non-resident workers, and pledged to do better.
Almost 180,000 non-resident workers were employed in the SAR as of March. About 6,500 of them were from Indonesia, working across a wide range of sectors. Fauziyah said that Macao was a popular destination for her compatriots in search of work.
