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)