The Omnibus Law Ciptaker is still in polemic because the community is divided into 2 camps, which support and reject. People who refuse should study the draft bill further, because it is proven to benefit female workers. Women will be better protected by this bill and guaranteed a very decent salary.
Female workers are still vulnerable because some are paid less than male employees. There are also those who can only grumble and are afraid to protest to HRD when they lose their rights at the office. For example, there is no lactation room, unpaid overtime pay, and so on. Even though the number of career women in Indonesia is very large, they feel they are being seconded.
To solve this problem, the government made the omnibus law on the Job Creation Bill which contains an employment cluster that is pro female workers. In one of the articles in this bill, it is stated that employers are prohibited from terminating employment relations because female employees are pregnant, miscarriage, giving birth, or breastfeeding their children.
This shows how much the government pays attention to the rights of female employees. Because even though they work in the company, they cannot forget their nature to become pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. Likewise, when applying for sick leave during a miscarriage, the company does not have the right to fire because it is tantamount to injuring human rights.
If the Job Creation Bill has officially become a law, then female employees can be relieved that the right to maternity leave is not removed. They can still leave work for 3 months and rest so that their bodies are healthy until they give birth. While at the hospital, you can ask for a reimbursement from the company’s health insurance.
Women workers can fulfill their child’s right to get exclusive breastfeeding (for 6 months). Because the company doesn’t get angry when they express milk at the office. In fact, a lactation room will be made complete with refrigerator facilities, so they can be comfortable when storing expressed breast milk.
There is a rumor that the omnibus law on the Job Creation Bill is not pro-female workers because the article on menstrual leave rights is removed. In fact, this right is very rare and there are rarely any countries that grant it. In fact, women workers feel embarrassed about using menstrual leave. So when this article was deleted, it didn’t really affect them.
Women workers also benefit from the Job Creation Bill because there is a regulation on the maximum duration of work, which is 40 hours a week. If it is more, then you must be given overtime pay. The fact is that currently there are still companies or factories that work 11 hours a day without any overtime pay rights. If caught, they can be implemented by Disnaker.
Female employees also feel safe because salaries are regulated by the governor. The provincial minimum wage is guaranteed to be nominal higher than the city minimum wage. In fact, the rules in the omnibus law of the Job Creation Bill, only employees whose work period is less than 1 year will get a salary according to the UMP. So employees who work longer hours will be paid higher.
In addition, they still get an annual bonus from the company. The nominal is also not bad, it can even be 8 times the salary. The longer the tenure, the bigger the bonus. So women workers can be happy because they receive appreciation in the form of bonuses outside of their salary, and can be used to buy children’s milk and other necessities.
Therefore, the omnibus law of the Job Creation Bill must be supported because it makes the fate of workers better, including female employees. They are entitled to maternity and breastfeeding leave, and may not be fired when they have given birth, miscarriage or accidents. Female employees also receive a decent salary and an annual bonus.
Rengganis Parahita, author is a contributor to the Institute for Strategic Information Studies
