'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.