Indonesia's Law Fails Victims of Sexual Harassment in Workplace
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1 January 2019 17:43 WIB
There is currently no law to protect women from such uncomfortable and sometimes even violent cases, which means many Indonesian companies don’t have sexual harassment policies or standards of procedure.
Nestle Indofood Citarasa Indonesia is one example. The implementation of a sexual harassment policy is not a priority because the company is more concerned about policies relating to payment and healthcare, a company spokesperson says.
In the rare case that companies do have policies, Nirmala Ika says they are only words on paper.
“According to our research on multiple companies, they have yet to implement it,” she says.
Pawestri agrees. “If companies have policies, the issue is the implementation. It’s still difficult for victims to report especially if the company doesn’t have experience in dealing with the issue.
“You need a policy, which is well implemented, and then you need a national policy, or at least local government regulations on sexual harassment. Once this is done, maybe victims will feel less scared to report because they might get a good result.”
Jones concurs. “Action needs to be taken at both the state level with legislation and policies protecting women from sexual harassment in the workplace and in the private sector at a company level.
Infographic on sexual harassment. Credit: Chelsea Cosgrave
“Women need to have legal rights, but they also need education about their rights and support systems that provide adequate responses if women choose to exercise their legal rights.”
Even though there is a flourishing young feminist movement in Indonesia, Walton says it has been incredibly hard to build their advocacy enough to modify current laws that relate to sexual harassment.
“There’s a draft law on the Elimination of Sexual Violence that has been sitting in parliament since 2014. Basically, whatever we do, we just can’t get it ratified,” she says.
“We’re pushing to get it passed before the election in April next year or we’ll have to start again.”
Walton notes sexual harassment is a worldwide problem, not just an Indonesian one.
“The main difference is that Western countries like Australia have laws against workplace sexual harassment, but whether it’s really having an effect is another question,” she says.
“This issue isn’t unique to Indonesia. Really it’s not that different. It’s just the patriarchy, presented in different forms.”
Aoife Scales, Chelsea Cosgrave, Aurelia Michelle R and Benedictus Billy Brilianditya
Aoife Scales and Chelsea Cosgrave visited Indonesia with support from the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan mobility program.
