JAKARTA (Joint Press Release): Tripartite officials representing government, employers and trade unions will meet at Salak Hotel, Bogor (23-25 March), to look at ways of promoting better workplace through preventing harassment in the workplace. Workplace safety and productivity can be inhibited by prevailing discriminative treatments of workers that lead up to some forms of harassment. Attention to workplace harassment has traditionally been focused on physical violence/harassment.

In more recent years, however, new evidence has been emerging of the impact and harm caused by non-physical violence, often referred to as psychological violence/harassment, which include bullying, mobbing, coercion, verbal abuse and sexual harassment. Prevention harassment in the workplace is both an international and national concern.

“Many workplace violence events occur out of sight of the general public, in one-to-one situations, results in emotional rather than physical injury to the victim, and produce extensive costs both for the employers and the recipient. Often the victims have limited protection from unfair dismissal and have few alternative job options,” stated Alan Boulton, Director of ILO Office for Indonesia.

Myra Hanartani, Director General of Industrial Relations and Social Security, Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, finds that “it is encouraging to note the increasing attention being paid to the extent and severity of all forms of workplace harassment, including by workers, trade unions, employers, government authorities and experts. It is therefore for the government to analyse the full range of causes which generate the workplace harassment and variety of intervention that can be applied to promote effective prevention of harassment at the workplace.”

The variety of behaviours which may be covered under the general rubric of harassment at work is so large, the borderline with acceptable behaviours is often so vague, and the perception in different contexts and cultures of what constitutes the violence is so diverse, that defining the workplace harassment phenomenon is a significant challenge.

Harassment at the workplace is quite difficult to be handled when no grievance procedure at the enterprise related to harassment has been established and understood by workers and employers and when the victims are hesitant to discuss the case. Therefore, it is necessary to encourage prevention and common action to avoid discriminative treatment at the workplace that has adverse impact on work productivity.

The three-day workshop is organized by the ILO and the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration. It aims at raising awareness and understanding concerning harassment in the workplace and seeks inputs from workers, employers, and government officials for design of future preventive measures. The workshop will present the international and national experiences on the harassment at the workplace.

The resources persons will be the representatives from the ILO, Netherlands and Singapore governments, University of Indonesia, National Commission of Women, and representatives from union, employers, and MOMT. Myra Hanartani, Director General of Industrial Relations and Social Security, Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, will represent the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration and deliver an opening remark.

For further information please contact:

Irianto Simbolon
Director of Working Conditions
Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration

Lusiani Julia
Programme Officer
ILO Jakarta Office
Tel. +6221 3913112 ext. 135
Email