Indonesia working mothers want flexible office hours

Indonesia working mothers want flexible office hours

By T. Sima Gunawan and Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): Just back from maternity leave, Rina, a media
executive at a local advertising company, asked her employer to
allow her to adjust her working schedules to accommodate her new
role as a mother. She was pleasantly surprised by his response.

An architecture graduate from a prominent institute in
Bandung, Rina feels it is not necessary to quit her job while she
takes care of her newly-born baby.

She had scheduled a long maternity leave and had planned to
significantly reduce her responsibilities after the leave. But
when she went back to work earlier this year, she was able to
keep more of her duties than she had expected because of the
flexible working hours.

"At first, I felt rather unsure whether my boss would accept
my idea to apply flextime working hours. The concept is not yet
common in Indonesia. To my surprise, he accepted the idea as long
as I completed my work and met the deadlines set by the company,"
she said.

Rina is lucky. She is able to breast-feed the baby and take
him to the doctor at times when other working mothers are
struggling with their routine work.

Being more committed to work does not necessarily mean you are
less committed to families, she said.

Both the father and mother should share the responsibility to
raise the children, but babies need their mother more because
they need their mother's milk.

Applying flextime to help working mothers balance their
working and family lives is still barely recognized in
Indonesia. Neither government offices nor private companies have
embraced the concept although Indonesia has ratified The Nairobi
Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women by the
year 1986-2000, and the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

By ratifying these two documents, the Indonesian government is
required to create conditions conducive to helping women develop
their potential as equal development agents.

The number of working women has continuously increased in
accordance with the growing development activities in the
country.

It is no secret that most Indonesian women work outside the
house because they have to. Many of them work as laborers or in
low-level positions. Studies show that over the last decade more
and more Indonesian women are embarking on professional careers
but nothing significant has been done to help them combine
professional and family roles.

United States

Local working mothers and fathers may feel a little envious
when they compare their working conditions with those of their
counterparts in Western countries.

In the United States, for instance, the Department of Labor
has encouraged companies to set new pledges to help parents
combine work and family life. Companies are urged to provide
various facilities including paternity leave, child-care and
nursing rooms. The programs must be written formally and
participants have to submit pledge cards to the department. All
those who make the pledge are congratulated publicly by the
department.

Last year an American magazine, Working Mothers,
nominated 100 giant industries including IBM, Johnson & Johnson,
General Motors and Atlantic Richfield Co, AT&T, Cigna
International as the best companies for working parents. These
companies are role models for American businesses which
successfully create workplaces that offer employees the
opportunity to both advance their careers and have a good family
life.

The companies have offered various benefits including child-
care centers and elderly-care centers, paid leave for both
mothers and fathers to spend time with their children. The
companies also apply flextime, a new concept of work founded in
l986, and a work-at-home concept for their employees. The
magazine revealed that in addition to the 100 giant companies,
there are many smaller firms which have moved further into the
working revolution by allowing female workers to bring their
babies into offices.

Martha Tilaar, general manager of PT Martina Bertho which runs
cosmetic companies Sari Ayu and Biokos, said her companies are
trying to apply flextime for their female workers.

"I always ask my workers to go back home to nurse their babies
at least during lunch time. But many of them are reluctant to do
so because of traffic problems," she said.

She urged companies in each industrial complex to jointly
establish child-care centers to help women workers nurse their
offspring during working hours. Her factory is located in the
Pulo Gadung Industrial Complex in East Jakarta.

"I know that it will take quite a long time to realize the
idea in Indonesia for various reasons," Martha said.

If any company starts the scheme, it has already been
supported the government's program which is fully backed by
President Soeharto.

The president has pledged l996-2000 as the years of the
National Movement to Strengthen Equal Partnership Between Men and
Women. Thus, the concepts are in line with the Movement because
they allow both men and women to work hand in hand in the family
and in national development activities.

A spokesman for Atlantic Richfield Indonesia in Jakarta, a
subsidiary of the US-based Atlantic Richfield Company declined to
reveal its policy regarding their workforce.

"We have to consult first with the state-owned oil company
Pertamina and we have to adhere to local policy," he said.

Niaga Cigna, a subsidiary of Cigna International, has
implemented the flextime concept for its account executives and
marketing staff, who are mostly working mothers.

Rae Sita Suwardi, Niaga Cigna's communications and marketing
manager, said that these staff are able to set their own working
schedules while at the same time, they receive various benefits.

T.O Ihromi, a professor of law at the University of Indonesia,
concluded in Kajian Wanita Dalam Pembangunan (Studies on Women in
Development) that Indonesian labor law includes articles that
grant equality for women in the workplace.

"Equality before the law is being achieved but real and
concrete steps are still required to ensure equality of
opportunity in education, and equality of access to health care,
to jobs and to political power." the professor said in the book.

Indonesia has followed-up the ratification of the documents on
women by the issuance of the Indonesian Country Reports. The
reports suggest employers should provide better facilities and
protection for women workers.

A study made by Sulistyowati Irianto, a researcher at the
Women's Study Center, reveals that even though some articles in
the reports have been transformed into Indonesian labor law, many
violations still occur in the field.

Gender discrimination prevails, there is a lack of facilities
and benefits such as the provision of child care centers, paid
paternity leave and medical allowances. And the application of
flexible working hours is unpopular with bosses, according to
Sulistyowati.

"Basically we are trying to get commitments and action. We've
always had lots of words about equality... what we want is to put
those words to music, which is the action," she said.

Translating that talk into action is crucial, she said.
Otherwise, a new world order, where women share responsibilities
with men in the fields of development, peace and social justice,
will remain a pipe dream in Indonesia.