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.