DPR Urged to Reinforce Protections for Women in Employment Bill

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Evi Krisnawati, Secretary of the IndustriALL Indonesia Council, has called on the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) to strengthen protections for women in the Draft Employment Protection Bill (RUU Pelindungan Ketenagakerjaan).

"After reviewing the draft bill currently under discussion, we found several areas that need reinforcement, particularly to provide more comprehensive protections for female workers," Evi said during a public hearing with Commission IX DPR on Monday (21/9/2026).

She cited that the enhancements should cover equal employment opportunities, guarantees of reproductive rights, and lactation facilities in the workplace.

Evi emphasized that protections for female workers must be ensured from the point of entry into the workforce—not only during pregnancy or childbirth.

She highlighted that discrimination often occurs implicitly in divisions of training, strategic assignments, and promotions, which results in wage gaps.

"Equality is not just about how women are treated once employed. It also means ensuring women have equal chances to enter, grow, and receive fair recognition in their careers," Evi explained.

She proposed that Article 94, Paragraph 1, Letter a of the Employment Protection Bill explicitly guarantees nondiscriminatory treatment in career development, promotions, training, remuneration, and employment benefits.

Meanwhile, Ngatiyem, representative of the IndustriALL Women’s Committee, drew attention to Articles 99 to 102, which regulate reproductive and maternity rights.

She urged revisions to norms concerning menstrual leave, childbirth, and miscarriage leave to ensure exact calculations and to prevent workplace intimidation.

"Menstruation is not an illness. It is a healthy productive cycle for women, occurring monthly. Therefore, menstrual, pregnancy, childbirth, and miscarriage leaves are reproductive functions exclusive to women, who are the bearers of the nation's future generations," Ngatiyem stated.

Regarding menstrual leave, Ngatiyem recommended that this right should not require a medical certificate since the worker herself is best qualified to assess her physical condition.

"We propose that job placements for pregnant workers in high-risk or hazardous roles should not rely solely on medical certificates for protection," Ngatiyem added.

She also called for standardizing the term "leave" and avoiding euphemisms like "not required to work" or "rest."

For maternity and miscarriage leave, the alliance proposed calculating leave based on "working days" rather than "months," suggesting 90 working days for childbirth and 45 working days for miscarriage.

Additionally, employers should be mandated to provide lactation facilities and classify breastfeeding breaks as paid working hours.

"This will prevent workers from losing wages or having to make up time when exercising their lactation rights," Ngatiyem stated.