Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Indonesia (Ratification: 1958)

The Committee notes the information in the Government’s report.

1. The Committee notes the communication received by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) dated 25 June 2003 on the application of Conventions Nos. 100 and 111 and the Government’s reply thereon, received 3 November 2003. In its communication, the ICFTU maintains that there is discrimination against women and that neither the Constitution nor the Manpower Act No. 13 of 2003 expressly prohibit discrimination on specific grounds, including sex. The ICFTU further alleges that women tend to be over-represented in low paying and lower responsibility jobs: in the public service, women constitute only 14 per cent of the employees in positions of responsibility and in the private sector there is a disproportionately high number of women employed as casual labour, resulting in lower pay than their colleagues employed doing similar jobs. Furthermore, many women are dismissed when they take maternity leave and the main reason for employers engaging women as casual labourers is the fact that women are then excluded from the provisions requiring maternity pay and leave. With respect to the alleged violation of the maternity provisions and the omission of specific grounds of discrimination in the legislation, the Committee refers the Government to its comments made on Convention No. 111.

2. Further to the above, the Committee notes that the Government indicates that sections 5 and 6, along with section 92 of the new Manpower Act, protect workers against discrimination and that the prevention of discrimination in wages  is undertaken through the examination of company regulations and collective agreements. The Committee notes that, while sections 5 and 6 of the Manpower Act of 2003 provide for equality of opportunity and treatment without discrimination, they do not refer expressly to specific grounds of discrimination. Both the Government and the explanatory notes on the Act indicate that the discrimination referred to includes discrimination between men and women. The Government notes that section 92 provides that the wages scales and structure shall be formulated by taking into account the functional and structural position, rank, occupation, seniority, education and competence of the worker. However, the Committee also notes that, in contrast to section 113(2) of the the former Manpower Act of 1997, which provided that "in determining wages the employers shall be prohibited to practice discrimination on whatever basis with respect to jobs of the same value", the new Act of 2003 does not include a specific provision guaranteeing that men and women workers shall receive equal remuneration for work of equal value. While appreciating the objective criteria set out in section 92, the Committee regrets this omission of equal value in the new Act. It hopes that the Government will consider amending the Act in order to give expression to the principle of equal remuneration between men and women for work of equal value, and will provide information on the status of any proposed amendments to the Manpower Act of 2003 in this regard. The Committee further asks the Government to indicate the status of Government Regulation No. 8 of 1981, which provided in its section 3 that in determining wages employers shall be prohibited to discriminate between men and women worekrs for work of equal value.

3. The Committee notes that the Government’s report fails to provide specific information such as statistics of wages of men and women workers in various occupations in both the public and private sectors, studies on employment conditions of women undertaken by the Ministry on the Role of Women or any other agency, or labour inspection reports that may enable the Committee to make a better assessment of the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice. Understanding that the Government is currently developing a national strategy to implement equal employment opportunity policies, the Committee hopes that the strategy will include the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value and that the Government will seize the opportunity to collect the necessary statistics to analyse the pay situation and to develop appropriate initiatives to improve the application of the Convention in practice. The Committee hopes that the Government will be in a position to provide in its next report full information in this regard.

The Committee is raising other points in a request directly addressed to the Government.