Garment workers seek help from human rights commission
Garment workers seek help from human rights commission
JAKARTA (JP): Thirty-four workers of the PT Duta Busana
Danastri garment factory called on the National Commission on
Human Rights yesterday to influence the management to treat them
fairly.
"The management forces us to work at night under day-time
conditions. We demand that the management provide us with extra
food and transportation facilities," Siti Nurrofiqoh, the
spokeswoman for the protesters, said.
Nurrofiqoh, 25, said the workers need extra food to stay
healthy and transportation from home and back again when they
work the night shift because most of them are women.
Prior to the protest, the management had decided to centralize
the company's production at its factory on Jl. Kemandoran and to
close another one on Jl. Palmerah Barat, South Jakarta.
In line with this move, the company asked hundreds of workers
to resign voluntarily. The management is now urging the remaining
workers to work at night at the factory on Jl. Kemandoran. The
workers have rejected this offer on the basis it constitutes
hardships for them.
"It's not unusual for women workers like us to ask for
transportation facilities in a big city like Jakarta," Nurrofiqoh
explained the demands.
A member of the rights commission, Asmara Nababan, immediately
contacted the management by telephone and talked to its vice
chairwoman Elliani Sapta Dewi.
Asmara told the protesters that the management could not
understand their wishes. "They invite you to negotiate with
them," Asmara said.
Inhumane
Last month the protesters also reported what they called
"inhumane" treatment by company personnel to the commission. The
workers complained that they were ordered to take off their
panties so the company officials could see whether they really
were having their period when they requested monthly menstruation
leave.
Under Indonesian law a female worker has the right to take a
two-day menstruation leave every month.
While waiting for Asmara to arrive at the commission office
yesterday, the laborers unfurled posters which read "Dockers are
sold dearly, workers are paid poorly" and "The Ministry of
Manpower, where is your responsibility?"
Dockers is the brand name for the denim clothes currently
being produced by PT Duta Busana Danastri.
When asked by Asmara why the protesters could not solve their
problem themselves, delegate Suparlan said the bargaining
position of the laborers was very weak.
"We're cornered. Elliani Sapta Dewi has a good connection with
an official of the Ministry of Manpower," Suparlan noted.
Suparlan said the official sides with the management.
The protesters were to begin negotiating with the management
last night in hopes of a compromise. (09)