Women workers who muscarry have right to leave

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.