Women wokers still face challenges in Indonesia

Women wokers still face challenges in Indonesia

By Devi M. Asmarani

JAKARTA (JP): Tuti, a newlywed female employee at a garment
factory, got an unexpected wedding present from her boss last
year: She was asked to resign.

The reason behind the order was that the young woman had
married a coworker.

Confused, Tuti went to the Social Legal Aid Information Center
(Sisbikum), a non-governmental organization specializing in labor
rights. She lodged her complaints and asked for help.

Sisbikum acted as a mediator in her case and she was
successful in forcing the company to allow her to continue to
working as usual.

Aris Merdeka Sirait, the executive secretary of the Jakarta-
based Sisbikum, said that last year the NGO handled 150 legal
cases for women, an 80 percent increase from 1995.

Fifty percent of the cases were pregnancy related, 23 percent
were due to marriages to coworkers, and 7 percent were over
employers who would not give mothers time to breast feed their
infants at work.

Sirait said the drastic increase in the number of cases was
due to an increase in the number of employer violations.

"Companies have increasingly violated the laws regarding their
employees' rights since the plan to raise the regional minimum
wage was announced in 1995," Sirait said.

The 10.6 percent wage rise in 1996, which was initially meant
to improve worker living standards, turned out to be a boomerang
for many female workers, as those companies unable to pay higher
wages let go of many married and pregnant workers.

Companies even fired those who had been working for between
five and 11 years, he said.

"The practice was just as bad in the garment manufacturing
industry where more than half of the employees are women, who can
easily be recruited," he said.

The rights of lower-income workers were not the only ones to
be violated.

Santi, 27, had been working for a mid-size property company
for two years when she became pregnant. Under a manpower ministry
law, Santi was allowed three months paid maternity leave, but her
company only agreed to give her a month. When she challenged the
company, it finally agreed to give her two months, but only one
month paid.

The Ministry of Manpower's records show that more than 2.82
million women made up 35.3 percent of the 7.99 million workers in
the country last year. Women are expected to make up 53.1 percent
of the total workforce by the end of the sixth phase of the
government's five year development plan in 1999.

A number of studies have shown that women in the workplace do
not enjoy fair and equal opportunity as guaranteed by the law.

One study conducted by the All-Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI)
showed that the income of women workers in Jakarta is less than
their male counterparts.

Sirait said that although minimum wage levels are equal for
both genders, women workers still end up getting less money than
men for the same job, and often fewer benefits.

Many companies, for example, only give family benefits to
married male workers, but not to married female workers.

Indrasari Tjandraningsih of the Bandung-based independent
research center, Akatiga, which deals with labor, small business
and property issues, said that women are often given the jobs
that pay less and require lower qualifications.

Culture as culprit

Indrasari said that women here are still regarded as second-
rate citizens. One cultural perception is that women are more
likely to tolerate their working conditions, Indrasari said.

Sirait shared Indrasari's opinion. He said many manufacturing
companies do not give two days off for menstruation as required
by law, while others have been known to inspect female workers by
stripping off their clothes before giving them the day off.

Women in the white-collar sector also come up against cultural
barriers, and many have a more difficult time than men advancing
their careers, Indrasari said. When women are given a chance to
better their careers, they are expected to work twice as hard.

"Many employers, male or female, insist that in order for
women to compete with men, they have to neglect their womanly
nature," she said.

Many job advertisements demand a single status as their main
criterion for hiring women. Some women are beginning to abandon
their right to have a family for fear of being dismissed or
losing out on career opportunities, she said.

Worse still, women do not have the access to the leadership
positions in SPSI, the only labor organization recognized by the
government, Sirait said.

"How can there be a reliable advocate for female workers, if
they do not have a strong representative in the organization?" he
asked.

He also criticized the fact that women do not participate in
the making of labor laws for their own gender.

"The current labor bill is now being drafted by male
representatives," he said.

Sirait suggested that an alternative labor law be drafted with
the help of non-governmental organizations, though, as Indrasari
pointed out, most of the problems still faced by female workers
are non-gender issues.

"The main problem is how to survive on the low monthly wage,
and the labor rights of male workers that are still violated,"
she said.

She said the problems could not be solved in just one sector,
but throughout the whole employment system. Businesses always
have a stronger influence on government rulings, she said.

"The demand for the upcoming minimum wage increase, which
takes effect on April 1, was initially for 15 percent, but the
influential business sector succeeded in reducing it to 10.7
percent increase," she said.

The labor sector, she asserted, must have stronger
representatives to compete against the lobbying power of
businesses.