Labor law needs revising, legal expert proposes

Labor law needs revising, legal expert proposes

DEPOK, West Java (JP): Indonesia's labor laws should be revised to provide the country's women workers with proper legal protection, a legal expert proposed on Saturday.

Suliati Rachmat, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia's School of Law, said that the Law No. 12/1948 on employment is outdated and no longer relevant.

Defending her doctoral thesis before a panel of professors, Suliati said the law stipulates that workers cannot be made to work more than seven hours per day six days a week.

In reality, she pointed out, workers are now made to work at least eight hours or even nine hours per day. Revealing the results of her study of 20 garment, textile, electronic appliance and food product manufacturers, she found that many of the employers had violated the rights of their women workers.

"Some companies pay overtime, but the question of how the routine extra time affects the workers' health is never addressed," she said.

Most of the companies also violated government regulations on maternity and menstruation leave. "The regulations allow leave time for women workers when they menstruate and are pregnant, but some workers lost their jobs simply because they were pregnant," she reported.

She said the small number of manpower officials supervising companies is one reason behind the slack law enforcement.

"Only 96 officials were supervising the 20 companies, which have more than 20,000 workers," she said.

Violations often go undetected because most company owners hide them, she said, adding that officials and researchers also find it difficult to obtain worker data from the company owners and managers.

She called on the government to revise the law and other relevant regulations and asked the People's Consultative Assembly to issue a decree strengthening protection for women workers.

Suliati also called for stiffer sanctions against those found violating workers' rights. "Impose more fines," she suggested.

Her findings support the opinion of most labor scholars that the government's handling of violators is generally too lenient.

Suliati, 66, hails from Malang, East Java. She has been teaching at a number of public and private schools since graduating from high school in 1952.

She graduated from the University of Indonesia's School of Law in 1968. She started teaching law in 1974. (imn)