Women workers who muscarry have right to leave

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

If employers and legislators could go through the physical and psychological impact of a miscarriage they would certainly give their full support to the labor bill allowing women workers who experience a miscarriage to have one-and-a-half months leave.

Following a long debate among legislators on the crucial issue, the House of Representatives' special committee which deliberated the labor protection bill, agreed to give a month-and-a-half long leave of absence to women workers who experience a miscarriage.

The issue is only one of dozens of contentious issues in the labor bill that has drawn protests both from employers and workers.

Article 82, Clause 2 of the current law, rules that women workers who miscarry have the right to take several days rest in accordance with a doctor's recommendation.

Labor unions and women workers have rejected the ruling since most employers allegedly pressure doctors in their company's clinic to give as few days rest as possible because a long leave of absence would be costly for employers.

A woman legislator in the special committee argued that a woman worker who miscarries deserves a long vacation to recuperate both physically and psychologically.

The article also rules that women workers have the rights to six weeks leave before giving birth and another six weeks after birth and the vacation could be extended at the recommendation of their doctor. Women workers are not obliged to work on the first and second day of their menstrual cycle.

The numerous contentious issues in the bill and on the settlement of labor disputes has caused the government and the House to delay the endorsement of the two controversial bills.

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said both the government and the special committee were committed to bring the two bills to a plenary session on Feb. 25, for endorsement.

So far, 22 of 64 labor unions registered at the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration have opposed the two bills which they said negated workers' rights.

Legislator Rekso Ageng Herman, a member of the special committee from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- Perjuangan) said that both sides had agreed to complete the discussion on the remaining contentious issues on labor dismissal, outsourcing and severance payments in the next two weeks.

"We still have adequate time to deliberate the remaining crucial issues before the two bills are passed into law," he told the Jakarta Post.