Discrimination against women workers 'pitiful'

Discrimination against women workers 'pitiful'

JAKARTA (JP): A leader of the All Indonesian Workers Union (SPSI) said yesterday that discrimination against women workers was widespread in Indonesia.

Despite some progress, the overall discrimination against women workers in Indonesia was still "appalling", said Ari Sumarijati, who chairs the SPSI's unit on women and child workers.

"We are still facing many obstacles in eliminating the common incidence of discrimination against female workers, both at home and overseas," she said in a discussion with Director General for Industrial relations and Labor Standards Suwarto.

The discussion was part of a three-day seminar on equal rights for workers which was attended by about 50 women labor activists from the provinces.

Ari said a great number of women workers were subject to exploitation at work and had no opportunity to advance their careers.

"Many labor disputes that have occurred in industry have to do with the denial of female workers' basic rights, such as better wages, overtime payments and menstrual leave," she said.

According to the SPSI, the only labor union recognized by the government, about 16 million, or 42 percent of Indonesian paid workers, are women. Most of them work in the manufacturing sector.

Ari said that lack of skills and a lower level of education had hampered Indonesian women working in the industrial sector. The situation had been made worse, she said, by parents' traditional belief that sending girls to school was not worth the money and effort.

Suwarto said that no law, let alone the 1945 Constitution, justified discrimination against women workers.

"There is no law that gives male workers privileges either," he added.

He said that certain jobs, because of their specific nature, were better done by men, while others were better done by women.

Asked about the light penalties imposed on employers who ignore workers rights, Suwarto said that the government could not do anything about court decisions.

He said the government had, on several occasions, called on the Supreme Court to impose harsher punishments on employers who violated the labor laws.

The manpower ministry planned to revise the labor law, passed in 1969, because it was considered outdated, he said.

He said a new law, which provided for stiffer penalties for companies in breach of labor laws, was expected to be deliberated in the House of Representatives this year. (rms)