Around 80 representatives from multinational companies, employers’ associations, workers’ organizations, employment observers and academia gathered in Jakarta on 15 November to look at ways in which business could further advance the principles of the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (MNE Declaration).

The MNE Declaration is the only ILO instrument that provides direct guidance to enterprises on social policy. Underpinned by international labour standards, its provisions constitute good practices on responsible and sustainable workplace practices. It is also the only global instrument in this area that was elaborated and adopted by governments, employers and workers from around the world.

Adopted more than 40 years ago, the MNE Declaration remains even more relevant today in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The principles under this Declaration aim to encourage positive contributions of multinational enterprises to economic and social progress, and to minimize and resolve the difficulties to which their operations may give rise.

Mohamad Fahmi, Executive Director of the Indonesia Business Links, reminded the participants about the importance of the labour company social responsibility (CSR) mentioned in the ILO’s MNE Declaration. To date, there is still a misperception about the implementation CSR in Indonesia where companies tended to focus on community activities over the capacity-building of their employees.

“There is no standard yet in Indonesia about the CSR. The Indonesian parliament is now drafting the CSR regulation as a means to regulate the implementation of CSR in the country. In addition to the CSR activities for communities, it is also important to conduct an internal CSR for empowering employees and providing better internal facilities,” said Mohamad.

Meanwhile, Alexander Noah, Managing Director of Dharmawangsa Hotel who is also the representative of the Jakarta Hotel Association, said that the hotel industry in the country has, in some extent, implemented the labour CSR concept. “I believe this labour CSR concept could also be implemented in other industries, not just the hotel industries. Companies have to allocate a funding for CSR activities and it would be beneficial if this funding could be used to strengthened internal human resources that in turn, would be beneficial for the companies in a longer term,” he stated.

In addition, some representatives of multinational companies from PT Panasonic Gobel Indonesia, PT Holcim Indonesia and PT Astra Daihatsu Motor shared their labour CSR programmes. PT Panasonic, for example, focused on the betterment of internal facilities for its employees as ways to improve their productivity and competitiveness. Meanwhile, PT Astra Daihatsu focused on its supply chain manufactures by improving their educational attainment and competencies.

In addition, PT Holcim Indonesia focused on providing vocational education opportunities for youth in their surrounded operational areas, particularly on cement-related technical industries. Combining classroom training with technical workshops, graduates of this vocational education have not only been absorbed by PT Holcim, but also by other multinational companies.