Hoirunnisa, Jakarta – Women's labour groups say that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's policies over the period he has been in power have impoverishing many working families.

Dian Septi Trisnanti, head of the Marsinah.id community platform, said that that the policies in question include those related to regulations and laws that have given rise to low wages for workers and repressive practices by the authorities.

This is why she emphasised that the problems face by workers will not be resolved just by the president making an apology.

"I don't think it's enough to apologise, because President Jokowi's polices since he came to power until now when his term in office will end, many have been detrimental to society and have the potential to impoverish workers' families for generations. Meaning poverty that is systematic. During the Covid-19 [pandemic] our wages were cut by 25 percent. This was followed by the Jobs Law and Government Regulation 78 of 2015", Trisnanti told KBR Media on Friday August 2.

Trisnanti said that the policies Widodo has given birth do are also gender biased as can be seen from the failure to enact the Draft Law on the Protection of Domestic Workers (RUU PPRT), which has been sitting idle in parliament for 20 years.

"The impact has been structural poverty, and it impacts more on women workers because women workers are more vulnerable, in the midst of a society that is still gender biased. Jokowi's policies are still very gender biased and do not place any importance on women. This can be seen from the failure to enact the Draft Law on the Protection of Domestic Workers that has been sitting idle for 20 years. This is the special character of the class struggle", explained Trisnanti.

Trisnanti also said that the government has not yet optimised protecting the rights of workers in the nickel mining sector.

"Instead of thinking about the safety of K3 [occupational health and safety programs] so that there are no explosions and the loss of lives, Jokowi instead encourages downstreaming nickel which it's imagined will abolish our debt", she said referring to several incidents in which explosions at nickel refineries have killed dozens of workers.

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Jokowi Minta Maaf, Buruh: Banyak Kebijakan Berpotensi Miskinkan Buruh".]

Source: https://kbr.id/berita/terbaru/jokowi-minta-maaf-buruh-banyak-kebijakan-berpotensi-miskinkan-buruh