Government against ethnic discrimination in workplace
Government against ethnic discrimination in workplace
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government is strongly against any ethnic discrimination
in the workplace as it is not in line with existing labor laws,
an official said on Thursday.
"Bylaws that enable ethnic discrimination should not exist,"
the Ministry of Home Affairs' director general of public
administration and regional autonomy Sudarsono said.
He told The Jakarta Post that his office would keep
monitoring bylaws and regulations on employment to check whether
there were loopholes that enabled any kind of discriminatory
practices.
Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea
expressed disappointment on Tuesday over ethnic discrimination
practices in regional workplaces that have resulted from the
implementation of the regional autonomy law.
The discrimination varies among regions, where many regencies
employ only locals, with others imposing fees on workers or
employees from other regencies.
Legal expert Luhut M. Pangaribuan pointed out that, since
Indonesia's existing laws on labor had all clearly banned
discrimination in the workplace, any bylaws or regulations that
contradicted them should be revoked.
"Should an administration issue bylaws that prevent migrants
from other regencies or provinces from getting jobs or promotions
in certain regions, the regulation should be nullified," he told
the Post.
Indonesia has ratified International Labor Organization (ILO)
Convention No. 111/1958 against discrimination with regard to
employment and occupation. The country has also enacted Law No.
21/1999, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex,
ethnicity, religion or political views in relation to
recruitment, promotion, remuneration, punishment and reward and
access to facilities in the workplace.
Sudarsono said that such discriminatory practices occurred
because of inconsistency on the part of local authorities in
interpreting the regional autonomy law.
"Such ethnic discrimination in the workplace is a phenomenon
that may occur if regional autonomy is implemented in an
excessive way. We all need time until we can achieve the ideal
form of regional autonomy. Anyway, it's still the first year of
the implementation," he remarked.
Luhut said that the central government should impose a
national standardization on the civil servant recruitment process
to ensure its objectivity.
"Despite being unfavorable, the regions' enthusiasm for
employing locals in the administration is inevitable. Introducing
a merit system to the recruitment process can prevent such ethnic
discrimination from happening," he said.
He further said that discrimination in the workplace would
continue to happen until the government decided to eliminate
loopholes in the existing regional autonomy law.