“Lots of normative rights have been lost because there is no work agreement, the legal aspects are blurry, sometime even non-existent. Health protection, work hours that we are proud of are flexible but actually the wages is not decent and tend to be exploitative. It happens in a lot of jobs,” he said.
Marsinah Dhede, a woman activist with disabilities, agreed. She revealed that there are many difficult situations for workers with disability. Many of them are able to work but are prevented from doing so by employer regulations.
“Never mind talking about a living wage, a safe place to work, we are even still talking about the need to be recognized as workers. Because Article 433 considers us incompetent, our right to work is arbitrarily violated,” she said.
Read: China, Bangladesh eyes Indonesian textile & apparel market, local industry under threat
Marsinah said that this was made worse by the absence of any form of protection for them. Thus, she said the Working Women’s Conference should urge the government and employers to create decent works for all people who are able to join the workforce. (un)