Workers and employers of palm oil and fish processing sectors join forces to promote labour rights and gender equality
Applying what they have learnt from the ILO’s communications training, workers and employers from palm oil and fish processing sectors have conducted their own internal and public campaigns to promote stronger compliance to labour laws and labour rights.
“Sexual violence in the world of work can happen to anyone from verbal abuse to rape and, sadly, victims remain silent because of fear and shame,” posted Laurensia L. Siahaan from the Federation of Plantation and Agricultural Trade Union. She posted the message with additional messages about the role of the company and infographic posters highlighting the vulnerability of women workers at the palm oil sector to sexual violence.
The compilation of social media posts and infographic posters produced by the participants of the ILO communications training.
Her social media post was one of numerous social media posts, infographic posters and news articles produced and published as part of the ILO’s campaign to promote stronger compliance to labour laws and the principles of occupation safety and health (OSH) as well as gender equality in the management and supply chains of the palm oil and fish processing sectors.
She was also one of the 48 participants representing workers’ and employers’ organizations from these two sectors who participated at the communications training conducted by the ILO’s Improving Workers’ Rights in Rural Sectors for the Indo-Pacific with a focus on Women project. The four-day training have resulted 74 informational, education and communication (IEC) materials developed and over 30 workshop and brown bag learning sessions conducted by participants reaching over 36,000 people from their networks.
Wearing safety gears for those workings in the field or in the processing mill are mandatory. Unfortunately, most workers need to be supervised to dutifully wear the gears. Thus, I hope the internal campaign could raise their self-awareness about this issue."
Rusmin Idrus, a Human Resources (HR) officer of PT Rea Kaltim Plantation, a palm oil plantation company in East Kalimantan
Rusmin Idrus, a Human Resources (HR) officer of PT Rea Kaltim Plantation, a palm oil plantation company in East Kalimantan, has been active organizing an internal campaign for his company. Based on graphic design techniques that he learnt, he has developed OSH posters and banners and posted them around the company’s sites to increase workers’ compliance to safety standards.
He hoped the informative materials would become a constant reminder for all the workers about the importance of OSH. “Wearing safety gears for those workings in the field or in the processing mill are mandatory. Unfortunately, most workers need to be supervised to dutifully wear the gears. Thus, I hope the internal campaign could raise their self-awareness about this issue as we do not have enough supervisors to conduct patrols all the time,” said Rusmin.
An internal campaign has also been conducted by Julitha Ratumbanua, an HR officer of PT Nutrindo Fresfood, a fish processing company located in Bitung, North Sulawesi. The company has begun its social audit since 2020 with OSH compliance as one of the key indicators. Thus, informational materials have been developed to promote OSH compliance to over 100 company’s employees. The company’s remote location had made it difficult for the company to raise all of the employees’ awareness about certain important issues.
“Our remote location makes it difficult to raise the awareness of all employees. We either have to send the expert or trainer to the location or to send a limited number of our employees to workshops outside Bitung. However, with the new skill that I learnt from the training to develop suitable informational materials for the employees, we now can develop our own messages according to our need,” she added.
Moving forward, the Federation is planning to build a training centre and will incorporate communications training to its members. It is important for all the members to have a communications skill, particularly the practical communications skills that can be directly applied to our daily works and promote better protection for all our members."
Laurensia L. Siahaan from the Federation of Plantation and Agricultural Trade Union
Meanwhile for Laurensia, she planned to expand her campaign not only through her organizational and personal social media accounts, but also through the other 22,000 federation members working in 60 palm oil companies in Central Kalimantan and Riau.
“Moving forward, the Federation is planning to build a training centre and will incorporate communications training to its members. It is important for all the members to have a communications skill, particularly the practical communications skills that can be directly applied to our daily works and promote better protection for all our members,” she stated.
The participating workers’ and employers’ organizations included the Indonesian Pole & Line and Handline Tuna Fisheries Association (AP2HI), The Foundation of Indonesian Society and Fishing (MDPI), the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo), the Confederation of All Indonesian Labour Union (KSBSI) and its Trade Union Federation of Forestry, General Industry, Timber, Agriculture and Plantation (F-HUKATAN), the Confederation of National Trade Union (KSPN), the Confederation of Indonesian Moslem Labour Union (K-Sarbumusi), and the Trade Union Federation of Agriculture and Plantation of the Confederation of All Indonesian Workers’ Union-CAITU (FSPPP KSPSI-CAITU).
