Average Worker At Factory Vulnerable To Sexual Violence, Most In West Java

Illustration of qual sex violence in women (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - A Working Feasibility Survey from the Data Academy Program by Salamu.com and the Trade Union Rights Center (TRC) found that one in 20 respondents reported cases of sexual harassment at work.

External Project Manager Salarymu, Dela Feby said that at 4,529 workers in 149 textile, garment, footwear, and leather factories (TGSL) in five parts of Indonesia in 2022, 3,819 respondents found that there was one factory in Banten and five factories in West Java where cases of sexual harassment were reported.

"This fact was conveyed by 194 respondents, meaning that one of 20 respondents working at the TGSL factory reported cases of sexual harassment at their workplace in the past year," he explained.

He added that the dominance of women in TGSL factories makes female workers vulnerable to sexual harassment. A total of 115 respondents or 5.5 percent of the total female respondents stated working in factories with reports of sexual harassment.

This percentage is greater than 79 respondents or 4.6 percent of the total male respondents who said the same thing.

According to his age, 90 respondents were young workers or 7.4 percent of the total respondents in the age range of 20-29 years and 56 respondents or 4.8 percent of the total respondents aged 30-39 years.

"This shows how important legal instruments can be to protect workers from sexual harassment in the workplace," he said.

Dela Feby assessed that the issuance of Kepmenaker No.88 of 2023 concerning Guidelines for the Prevention and Handling of Sexual Violence in the workplace was a breath of fresh air in an effort to eliminate sexual violence.

"This guideline, which has not even been a month, is a breath of fresh air in an effort to eliminate sexual violence," he said.

However, he noted that the guidelines made aspects of handling, protection, and recovery only a stage. Meanwhile, in the TPKS Law, these three aspects are clearly referred to as victims' rights.

As a result, he continued, in the protection section, guidelines provide equal services to victims and perpetrators in the event of a violation of employment norms and or industrial relations disputes by companies due to sexual violence.

Likewise, in the recovery section, the leave that is the right of victims in terms of requiring counseling due to trauma and undergoing the process of handling cases is sick leave. In practice, the record of sick leave is also an assessment of the performance of workers.

"In the TGSL sector in particular, workers are considered not to meet their work targets due to sick leave," he said.