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.