Elly Burhaini Faizal, Jakarta – Indonesia needs benchmarks to ensure that more workers can obtain "decent and productive" work, according to an ILO economist.
Nikolai Rogovsky, a senior economist from the International Labor Organization's (ILO) policy integration department, said on Monday that Indonesia needed to create indicators and benchmarks to realize full and productive employment and decent working conditions for all workers. "Decent work is a concept that is very important to improve working conditions. It will boost productivity that is necessary to improve competitiveness," he said.
Rogovsky spoke on the sidelines of a two-day workshop sponsored by the ILO and the European Commission on working conditions in Indonesia that started on Monday.
The ILO defines decent work as "opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work under the condition of freedom, equity, security and human dignity".
The concept was introduced by then ILO director general Juan Somavia in the 1999 International Law Commission (ILC) report and won endorsement from the international community.
In 2008, the ILO endorsed a decent work agenda through its Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization.
Rogovsky said many entrepreneurs could not see the link between decent work and national competitiveness. Some entrepreneurs still considered decent work as a sophisticated standard that led to increased prices tags, salaries, overtime payments and production costs, he said.
"Decent work is not a short term effort. It's about competitiveness. If you want to have a contract with multinational companies, they will come and see, particularly about your working conditions, because they don't want trouble from pressure groups such as consumer advocacy groups, that will take a look at how you treat your workers," he said.
"Let's look not merely at business matters but also humane matters," Rogovsky said.
According to the ILO, decent work was comprised of fundamental principles and rights at work, promoting employment, social protection, social dialogue and tripartism.
Sri Moertiningsih Adioetomo, the head of population and manpower studies at the University of Indonesia, said the government had made an effort to create decent work standards through various laws and regulations.
"Unfortunately, these measures have failed to achieve decent and productive work that covers all four dimensions of the ILO's decent work concept due to the absence of benchmarking," she said.
Sri is one of several UI's researchers currently involved in validating decent work standards in Indonesia.
According to the government, about 41 million out of the 109 million people in the workforce are underemployed and 9 million are unemployed. Only about 30 percent of the workforce labors in the formal sector.
Indonesian Employers Association chairman Sofjan Wanandi said the government should create more jobs before promoting decent work standards.
"Decent work is important, but I think it's not our main priority since we still have a high rate of unemployment. With few job opportunities in this country, how can we implement decent work?" he said.