The Precarity at the Sea: The Experience of the Domestic Fishery Vessel Workers in Indonesia
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Abstract
Compared to the land-based sector, research on the domestic fishery vessel worker is scarce, causing academic, practitioner, and policymaker difficulty to describe their nature and current situation. Therefore, the research inquires what is the situation of fishery vessel workers in Indonesia. The purpose of this article is to describe the working conditions of fishery vessel workers in Indonesia in accordance with the International Labour Organization Convention 188 and Indonesia Fishery Human Rights. Drawn from a mixed method approach with surveys in Jakarta, North Sulawesi, Bali, and Maluku with a total of 318 respondents, our findings suggested the nature of fishery vessel workers is precariat work which lacks job, income and social security. Their precariousness could be indicated by the irregularity of their work, unclear employment law, no fixed income, and their vulnerable social background. As a result of precariousness, rights violations exist in the fishing industry, especially as the Indonesian government has yet to ratify the ILO Convention 188. The study will provide an implication for the study of precariat work in Indonesia as well as the scholarly discussions on rights violations in the seafood industry.
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