COMMENT | Don’t allow Covid-19 to infect workers’ rights
COMMENT | On the eve of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) annual World Decent Work Day, Indonesians took to the streets protesting the passing into law the Omnibus Bill that will sign away crucial worker rights and legalise employment exploitation.
At least two million workers representing 32 labour unions are expected to take part in mass rallies across the country over three days, Oct 6-8, risking their lives to the infectious coronavirus.
The archipelagic country has fared poorly in their battle against the virus, recording an average of 4,000 new daily cases for the past two weeks and it’s heart-breaking to forecast a definite rise in this figure owing to the street rallies. It was estimated that at least 10.6 million Indonesians are jobless of which about 3.7 million lost their earnings to the effects of Covid-19.
The Omnibus Act that would amend 73 laws, consists of 15 chapters and 174 articles that affect every single Indonesian as it covers a wide range of issues from business and environmental standards to halal certification, education and even regional government powers...
COMMENT | On the eve of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) annual World Decent Work Day, Indonesians took to the streets protesting the passing into law the Omnibus Bill that will sign away crucial worker rights and legalise employment exploitation.
At least two million workers representing 32 labour unions are expected to take part in mass rallies across the country over three days, Oct 6-8, risking their lives to the infectious coronavirus.
The archipelagic country has fared poorly in their battle against the virus, recording an average of 4,000 new daily cases for the past two weeks and it’s heart-breaking to forecast a definite rise in this figure owing to the street rallies. It was estimated that at least 10.6 million Indonesians are jobless of which about 3.7 million lost their earnings to the effects of Covid-19.
The Omnibus Act that would amend 73 laws, consists of 15 chapters and 174 articles that affect every single Indonesian as it covers a wide range of issues from business and environmental standards to halal certification, education and even regional government powers.
The labour contention to the Omnibus Law is that it will cut the maximum severance payments by employers from 32 months to 25 months. The payments for recognition of length of service and compensation for rights that are differentiated based on reasons for the lay-off is expected to be scrapped. The newly passed law will also allow longer work hours, cut mandatory leave, permit the hiring of contract and part-time workers to replace full-time workers and has removed the three-year maximum duration of contracts after which the employee has to be made permanent.
Now, outsourced workers and contract workers will remain forever, but the government said this move was intended to promote formal hiring. This jobs law that is designed to boost investment into Indonesia by streamlining complicated regulations placed very little consideration on the protection of worker rights.
ILO summed up decent work as work that is productive, delivers a fair income, security in the workplace, social protection that includes family members, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom to express one’s concerns, equality in opportunities and treatment of women and men and the freedom to organise and participate in the decisions that affect their lives.
However, at one fell swoop, this piece of bad legislation has removed all decency in the world of work for Indonesians by reinforcing precarious employment elements that will gnaw at every single worker, every single day.
Scrambling for changes in labour laws
Unfortunately, in the name of labour “reform”, India’s recovery of employment is at the expense of worker rights, incrementally and piecemeal, starting with longer working hours – in some states, an increase to as many as 72 hours a week.
Another workers’ rights protection being bartered away (in one state) is the temporary (1,000 days/more than two and a half years) exemption from provisions in the Industrial Disputes Act which bans union-busting, for all new firms.
Two other states with sizeable labour force want to exempt new firms from most labour laws for the next three years. Laying workers off seems to be the biggest ask, where, in nine states, larger manufacturing firms with less than 300 employees can now lay workers off without government’s permission.
The previous threshold was limited to smaller firms with less than 100 employees. About 40 central laws and 100 state laws governing how to remunerate workers, contribute to their pensions, safeguard them from injury, settle their grievances and lay them off, are temporarily suspended, in the interest of job creation, yet, within a month of India announcing a strict lockdown in March this year, it recorded a staggering 114 million job cuts.
Some may argue that jobs were protected on paper but precarious in practice and that the paperwork may contribute to the precariousness of employment, but the answer is not to erase labour protections but to prevent the abuse of them.
Don’t barter away worker rights
While India puts its labour laws on pause, Malaysian workers are eagerly awaiting the Industrial Relations Act (IRA) (Amendment) Bill 2019 that was passed by both Houses of Parliament late last year, received royal assent early this year and is pending the gazette of the Human Resources Ministry to take effect.
The ministry does not need to wait for Parliament to convene to do this and the unexplainable nine-month delay to do so is beginning to worry workers. There were 30 amendments and three new provisions made to the IRA, chiefly devolving the power of the minister to the director-general in many aspects, including, to direct dismissal cases to Industrial Court if unresolved.
The amendments will also allow workers to join any union of their choice. There is also an Amendment Bill waiting to be tabled in Parliament to reform archaic provisions in the Employment Act 1955 and to remove all discriminatory language pertaining to work, in the legislation.
Similarly, the Trade Union Act (TUA) 1959 is also up for amendments and the government has already carried out several rounds of stakeholder consultations.
We urged the government to use the effects of Covid-19 where jobs are at the core of the current economic crisis, as an opportunity to “reconfigure” the employment status quo in the country to be more inclusive, equitable, sustainable and in the process eliminate precarious job elements. Now is the time to do so with reforms to labour laws.
The government must ensure that all three legislations are reformed as discussed with stakeholders, before the year is up, as workers are the strength of the nation and key to the nation’s economic recovering from the inevitable recession that is looming over us.
At present, labour laws in the country have not protected workers from falling into unfavourable, precarious employment, majority of whom are women and we want this form of discrimination to end through the implementation of labour reforms.
Malaysia needs to do more to entice investment without compromising workers’ rights and environmental safeguards. In order to save jobs and firms, the government needs to spend more and take on higher deficits now and pare down the deficits when the economy recovers. The government had only disbursed about RM35 billion of the RM260 billion stimulus package and more SMEs need to be assisted and the government must work hard to find ways to improve their prospects.
Countries like Indonesia and India, where workers will now face longer days and lower wages, have fallen into a trap of ‘racing to the bottom’ of labour standards, pushing decent work out of workers’ reach for many years to come.
We do not want Malaysian workers to be thrown into the same predicament and call for the halt of this inhumane ‘race to the bottom’ of workers’ rights. In the current global economy, it is in the best interest of Malaysia to ensure employment guidelines that promote decent work are adhered to, in order for companies based in Malaysia to do business smoothly in global supply chains.
It was reported that mere hours before the vote on the contentious Omnibus Bill, 36 global investors, representing more than US$4 trillion in assets released an open letter calling for Indonesia’s conservation of forests and peatlands and instead, take a long-term approach to economic recovery. Decent work for women workers. Decent work for all workers.
PERSATUAN SAHABAT WANITA SELANGOR is a non-governmental organisation that has been committed to the concerns and the interest of women workers as well as to the larger issues of democracy, justice and equality in the Malaysian society, since 1984.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
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