Three national trade union confederations shared their best practices in eliminating and preventing HIV/AIDS at the workplace at a one-day seminar conducted by the ILO in Jakarta on 31 May. These best practices were presented to demonstrate the role of trade unions in contributing to the achievement of the HIV/AIDS global target 95-95-95 in Indonesia.

The Confederation of National Trade Union (KSPN) shared its programme to promote the awareness about HIV, harassment and violence at workplaces. Meanwhile the Confederation of Indonesian Moslem Trade Union (K-Sarbumusi) developed a non-discriminatory policy among its members in the transportation sector at the district/city level and the Confederation of All Indonesian Workers’ Union-CAITU (KSPSI-CAITU) develop a similar policy among trade unions in the maritime sector.

Lilis Usman, Vice General Secretary of KSPN, explained that the decision to combine HIV issue with harassment and violence issues were to magnify efforts taken by the trade union in collaboration with the management to eliminate stigma and discrimination against workers dealing with these issues. “Thus, it is important to include issues related to sexual harassment in our programme development and our dialogues with the management so that workers will have more courage to be out of closet and we can deal with these issues,” she said.

Meanwhile Sutrisno Uloli, Vice Secretary of K-Saburmusi, highlighted the collaboration of K-Saburmusi with the city government of Sukabumi to educate transportation workers as well as the public at large about HIV/AIDS and to develop a non-discriminatory policy. “The non-discriminatory policy is important to ensure that workers who are HIV positive cannot be forced to resign. They have the same labour rights like other workers,” he said.

In the maritime sector, Tonny Pangaribuan, Vice General Secretary of KSPSI-CAITU, admitted that unfortunately, most maritime companies have a regulation that seafarers who are found to be HIV positive during the VCT@Work programme would be immediately sent home. He also added that with the increased number of woman seafarers, the Confederation has taken some actions to provide similar HIV prevention programme for them.

These best practices were appreciated by the representatives of the Ministry of Manpower, employers’ organization and HIV/AIDS organizations. Hartini, Programme Staff of the Indonesian Association of Positive Women (IPPI), emphasized the importance of awareness raising programme. “Continuous awareness raising is a must to eliminate stigma and discrimination. As part of IPPI, we always declare that we are HIV positive but with knowledge I can still be productive and have HIV negative children,” she said.

Similarly, dr Rima Melati from the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo) agreed that lack of HIV knowledge was the main cause of bad stigma against HIV/AIDS. “The key to the successful HIV/AIDS prevention and control programmes is good awareness and knowledge about HIV related issues. The HIV problems at the workplaces are also not only the problems of workers and companies, but the government has an important role in supporting the changes through regulations,” she added.

The seminar also examined the progress of the National Programme Strategy on HIV Prevention at the Workplace. The session discussed challenges face and ways to move forward to not only focus on programme activities that involve the national government, but also the provincial governments.

Budiono Subambang, Director of Local Government Synchronization for Health, Social Culture and Economy of Ministry of Home Affair, emphasized the essential role of each local government to implement the regulation of Minimum Service Standard that includes HIV services and to advocate the activation of HIV workplace working group at local level through a strong coordination between tripartite plus members and relevant institutions. 

The seminar concluded with the appreciation towards the active roles showed by trade union confederations through their best practices in HIV prevention and control at the workplace. The seminar also provided some recommendations to improve the national strategy as the following: the promotion of the good practices of union organizations to other tripartite members for scaling up and replication; the revitalization and development of HIV Working Group at national, provincial and district/city levels, including the budget plan for HIV Working Group for Workplace HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control through the existing structure and programme of the local government; and the establishment of data collection on programme activities for workplace HIV prevention and control as well as collaboration among tripartite plus and other relevant stakeholders.

The results of three national union confederation will be presented as poster in the 24 International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada on 29 July to 2 August 2022. Get the presentation here.