TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) had cold-shouldered the government’s plans to cut female civil servants’ (PNS) work hours.
Commission chair Yuniyati Chuzaifah said there were four reasons why the plans, which were proposed by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, should be shrugged off.
Firstly, she said, allowing female employees to go home two hours earlier from their offices—on the grounds that it would give them more time to attend to domestic matters—would further exacerbate discrimination against women.
“The policy will cement the paradigm that parenting is the task of a woman,” she said on Friday, December 5, 2014.
Secondly, she went on, the policy would ultimately spark the marginalization of women in workplaces. “No company will hire those with fewer work hours,” she said, adding that companies were oriented to profit, as opposed to human rights.
The third reason, she explained, was that the policy would likely extend the gap between children and their nuclear families: mothers will have more time at home, but this will potentially diminish fathers’ role in their families—given that their work hours remain unchanged.
Yuni said the last reason was the policy would not eliminate the root of the social problem. “If this policy were a drug, it would only be a painkiller that killed the pain but failed to cure the disease,” she said.
Yuni also called on the government to refrain from taking swift decisions without dwelling on the source of the problem. She also reminded the public that fathers’ and mothers’ obligations and rights should always be kept in balance.
MOYANG KASIH DEWIMERDEKA
