Improving Workers’ Rights in Rural Sectors of Indonesia

Rural workers in general are already facing issues such as widespread informality, ambiguous employment relationships and non-standard forms of employment, low wages, long working hours, and unsafe working conditions. The issues also apply to palm oil and fish processing sectors in Indonesia. Furthermore, discrimination, violence, and harassment in the rural sectors are also not uncommon; with women and girls disproportionally suffering from work-related and gender-based violence and harassment.

Objectives

The Project Improved Workers’ rights in Rural Sectors of the Indo-Pacific seeks to promote and improve labour law compliance, occupational safety and health (OSH) and gender equality in selected rural sectors in the Philippines and Indonesia. The aim is to contribute to enhancing working conditions. In Indonesia, the focus is on the palm oil and fish processing industries.

The project is implemented as part of Safety + Health for All — the ILO Flagship Programme aimed at improving the safety and health of workers worldwide — and will benefit from the tools, strategies and good practices identified in the context of the global initiative. The interventions are carried out in partnership with governments, workers and employers’ organizations in Indonesia. 
 

Project outcomes

The Project works closely with regional and country-level partners to achieve the following outcomes:
 

• Improved national frameworks for compliance with labour laws, occupational safety and health (OSH) and gender equality in rural sectors.
• Enhanced enabling environment for the promotion of and compliance with labour laws, occupational safety and health (OSH), and gender equality in rural sectors' pilot enterprises and communities.

Key Activities

Major project activities include but are not limited to:

• sectoral assessment and gender supply chain mapping;
• capacity building and competency-based programmes;
• development of sector specific information, education and communication (IEC) materials; establishing and enhancing online systems;
• localization and mainstreaming of gender, labour laws and standards, and OSH;
• fostering social dialogue.

Project partners

The Project is working with governments, workers' and employers’ organizations in both countries, which would include, but will not be limited to the following partners:

• Ministry of Manpower (MoM);
• Indonesian Employers Association (APINDO);
• All Indonesian Trade Union Confederations; and
• other Indonesian Ministries and Government units, sectoral business associations, and sectoral workers’ groups.

Funding is provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL‐35632-75-K. 100 per cent of the total costs of the project are financed with federal funds, for a total of 11 million dollars. This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government.