Most employers neglect women's rights

Most employers neglect women's rights

Eva C. Komandjaja
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

A large percentage of firms in large cities across the country
are denying women their legal rights in the workplace, a survey
by the Women's Journal Foundation (YJP) has found.

The survey, released during a women's workers workshop on
Wednesday, revealed that although prevailing laws require
companies to grant a three-month maternity leave as well as
regular menstruation leave to women, many companies have not been
abiding by the law.

According to the survey, the offending employers discourage
women from taking the full three months off.

Munawaroh, a worker at a garment factory in Bandung, West
Java, said on Wednesday that at her company, where almost 90
percent of the workers are women, pregnant workers are told to
take maternity leave for two months at the maximum and get extra
money as compensation for the third month.

The survey also revealed that in many cases, pregnant women
have been required to take their maternity leave for three
consecutive months after giving birth.

"So, the pregnant workers remain at work for the full nine
months of their pregnancies, which can be dangerous to their
health and of their unborn babies," the report said.

Existing laws allow for one-and-a-half months before they are
due and an equal amount of time after they give birth.

The survey also shows that there are many non-permanent
workers whose contracts are annulled when they are seven or eight
months pregnant, presumably so companies will not have to provide
paid maternity leave.

In addition to the maternity leave issue, most companies are
also lax about granting time off for menstruating workers.

According to Law No. 13/2003, a company is required to grant
two days of paid menstruation leave to all women workers each
month.

Of the 10 companies surveyed in Jakarta, Tangerang, Bandung
and Solo, only one is abiding by the menstruation leave
regulation appropriately.

Seven other companies stated that they would grant the two
days only if the worker actually felt too ill to work. However,
in such cases, the woman must be examined by her supervisor
before the leave is granted.

"In most cases, a company usually persuades workers not to
take time off by offering them a certain amount of money as
compensation," said Eko Bambang Subiyantoro, the workshop
coordinator.

He added that some companies just sent women to medical
clinics where they would be given pain medication and told to
resume work.

Head of Human Resources at PT. Benoli Inti Karya, Sunaryo,
confirmed the report by saying that at his company there were
checks on women workers to determine whether they were
menstruating.

"We do the checks because there are many cases where women
tend to abuse their menstruation leave by taking it near a
weekend in order to have a longer holiday," said Sunaryo.

He added that only 5 percent of women workers at his company
took regular menstruation leave, the rest were satisfied with the
compensation money.

Sunaryo added that menstruation leave was not an issue anymore
because modern pain medication was now available, and they could
work normally.

Besides pregnancy and menstruation leave in the survey, other
factors such as sexual harassment and other gender issues are
still neglected by several companies employing women workers in
the country.