'Workplace discrimination up in RI'

'Workplace discrimination up in RI'

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

An increasing amount of workplace discrimination in Indonesia, with gender discrimination topping the list, has at least one international organization very concerned.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a statement that based on data from the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) office, average female income was only 68 percent of average male salaries.

Similar discrimination also occurred for white collar workers, as female university graduates received 25 percent less than their male counterparts, it said.

Women also had less authority than men in the private sector. In 2000, for example, a number of women in positions of senior management was far below men.

Besides gender discrimination at work, discrimination based on age and other factors was also seen as increasing, according to ILO.

Citing a manpower survey in 2001, ILO said people in the age group between 15 and 29 years old worked 46 hours per week with an average salary of Rp 385,000 (US$43) per month, while people of 40 to 54 years old worked only 42 hours per week with an average salary of Rp 682,000 monthly.

Other discrimination against people of different races, people living with HIV/AIDS, the disabled and people from different religions was also prevalent, it said.

The statement was released after ILO published its global report on workplace discrimination earlier last week.

Dita Indah Sari, Chairman of the National Front for the Indonesian Workers' Struggle (FNPBI) agreed with ILO.

She said such discrimination occurred due to poor implementation of labor rulings and weak labor unions in the country.

"Women are still the main victim of discrimination at work, which is not only about salary, but also treatment," she told the Jakarta Post.

"But we must also raise our concern on the wide salary gap between the lowest and highest employees."

In Indonesia, she said, the salary gap between the lowest and highest workers could reach 1:150, while in Malaysia the gap is only 1:28 and 1:9 in Japan.

"This is part of injustice because everyone needs and uses the same amount of food per day, but how come the salary gap is so wide," she said.

Therefore, Dita said, there was no other way to resolve the problem but empowering the country's labor unions to fight for workers rights.

"We already have the laws and regulations that prohibit discrimination at work, but the implementation is poor. So we must build a strong labor union to push companies to abide by the laws," she said.