Trade unions take actions to promote gender-balanced workplace for SMEs

The ILO’s SCORE Programme in Indonesia collaborated with trade union confederations, through a series of gender equality trainings, to assist Indonesian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in creating equal opportunities for women and men at work.

News | Jakarta, Indonesia | 24 September 2021
The International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) Programme in Indonesia assists small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in elevating their productivity, quality, health and safety, as well as human resources management. The programme has collaborated with a number of its trade union partners to hold a series of trainings on gender equality in the workplace.

The promotion of gender equality at the ILO's SCORE participating companies
Following a comprehensive gender equality Training of Trainers that was held over five days with 95 participants, including the ILO’s constituents and SCORE Trainers, a series of ILO’s SCORE Gender Equality online seminars were held in six provinces, between July and September 2021. More than 517 participants from over 350 companies were introduced to ways they could address gender inequalities in their workplaces.

The materials, delivered by representatives from the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI), the All Indonesian Workers’ Union Confederation (KSPSI), the Confederation of National Workers Union (KSPN), The Confederation of All Indonesia Trade Union (KSBSI) and the Indonesian Muslim Trade Union Confederation (KSARBUMUSI), included the introduction to the six spheres in which gender inequality often occurs in enterprises.

The six spheres encapsulate equality of voice, inclusive hiring, equal pay, work climate, occupational safety and health, as well as work-life balance.

“Creating an inclusive and favourable working environment for all genders is an important step in ensuring growth for enterprises, the enthusiasm we receive from the participants signifies that progress can be made at this front,” said Agung Gustowo from K-SARBUMUSI, who participated in the training as a speaker.

Creating an inclusive and favourable working environment for all genders is an important step in ensuring growth for enterprises."

Agung Gustowo from K-SARBUMUSI
Similarly, one of the speakers from KSPI, Enung Yani Suryani, said that the 85 to 90 participants from each city/province had shown high enthusiasm towards the training, adding that “there is a need for innovations in the delivery approach to ensure it reaches the targeted goal.”

One of the innovations, she said, was through the digital implementation of the workshop itself, as it had allowed more participants to join the training and ensured that more gender-friendly policies are being implemented in the workplace among SMEs.

Out of all the improvement projects of various sectors that have been carried out by the enterprise, 60 percent (15 out of 25) are led by female employees."

CV Torang Raja, a company producing hand-crafted lighting fixtures in Bali, is one of the enterprises that has successfully addressed some of the issues within the enterprise after the seminar. Prior to participating in the training, the company was facing difficulties in ensuring equal participation from all employees, despite having more female employees compared to male ones. Lack of employees’ participation and gender equality values had become a challenge in generating ideas for the company and was seen as an issue that needed to be solved.

After the training, CV Torang Raja has been carried out programmes to improve participation, particularly from female leaders, and to encourage workers to speak up. Female workers are delegated to disseminate information to all employees and job performance socialization is also carried out by a female employee, who is also the Head of Production. Out of all the improvement projects of various sectors that have been carried out by the enterprise, 60 percent (15 out of 25) are led by female employees.

The quality improvement projects, initiated by the female head of production and a male quality control supervisor, have also led to the decrease in the number of defect products rate and resulted in the establishment of a gender-friendly SOP.

Female workers and leaders are also less reluctant to take their chance to speak up and lead. There has been better communication and engagement between divisions in the company."

Sylvia Rizkiani, CV Torang Raja’s EIT chairperson
Furthermore, the CV Torang Raja’s Enterprise Improvement Team (EIT) has conducted a fire drill training involving female workers. Sylvia Rizkiani, CV Torang Raja’s EIT chairperson stated in her report that there has been better engagement with the company’s programme among employees after participating in the seminar. The report also said that “There has been a decrease in absenteeism rate and employees are more eager to share their ideas to improve working conditions or bring about solutions to problems in their work.”

“Female workers and leaders are also less reluctant to take their chance to speak up and lead. There has been better communication and engagement between divisions in the company,” she added.

The synergy between the ILO’s SCORE Programme in Indonesia with its trade union partners has been proven to be an effective mean to ensure that SMEs are able to implement the necessary materials to elevate their businesses, and that through the implementation of a gender equality initiative, a company is able to improve its working conditions that lead to productivity improvements.

“The collaboration between the ILO and trade unions continues to play an important role in ensuring that our shared goals to create equal and decent working conditions for all can be achieved,” said ILO’s programme officer, Irham Saifuddin.