CRPD
Rights Tracker

• The Indonesian Government has ratified the Government Regulation (PP) on Employment of Persons with Disabilities. So far, there are no records related to this PP, as its impact is not yet visible in its implementation.

• There have been good practices of persons with disabilities being accepted in government or private sectors, such as banks, food companies, convection businesses, and other business units. However, persons with disabilities are rarely employed in job fairs according to their school/university majors. There is still a view that persons with disabilities are considered incapable because of their disability. In 2019, a disabled worker at a bread factory in Riau was denied employment on the grounds that the workplace was too dangerous and a person with a disability could not be placed in that factory.

• Meanwhile, based on the experience and monitoring of DPOs, discrimination against persons with disabilities in the recruitment of civil servants (ASN/PNS) still occurs in the government, including:

  • The Civil Servant Candidate (CPNS) formation opened for persons with disabilities is still discriminatory because the positions opened are limited to certain types of disabilities; positions are not open to all types of disabilities. Persons with disabilities who apply through the special CPNS formation track for persons with disabilities cannot apply for the General CPNS formation. This still occurred in the 2018 CPNS recruitment process.

  • There is no policy regulating quota affirmation for women with disabilities.

  • Cancellation of CPNS status due to disability – Dr. Romi Syofpa Ismail had her civil servant status cancelled by the South Solok Regency Government on the grounds of disability, even though her test scores were the highest among other candidates (2019).

  • Lack of affirmative policy regarding the maximum age limit of 35 years for CPNS recruitment for persons with disabilities. Discrimination in educational opportunities still experienced by persons with disabilities, resulting in the delayed completion of formal education, makes the age of 35 too low as the maximum limit for persons with disabilities to become civil servants (ASN).

    
    

• In the context regulation, the existing regulations are still discriminatory and not in accordance with the CRPD. This is reflected in the following regulations, such as Law No. 13 Year 2003 on Employment that still uses the phrase “disorder” and allows termination of employment due to disability (Article 153 and 172). Similar example in Law No. 21 Year 2000, Article 12 section “Membership” has not accommodated workers with disabilities, Article 8 of Law No. 14 Year 2005 concerning Teachers and Lecturers states that, “teachers must have academic qualifications, competence, certification as educators, physical and mental health, as well as having the ability to realize the goal of national education”. Law No. 36 Year 2009 on Health perpetuates the stigma on persons with disabilities through the term “physic and mental health.”

• One of the serious challenges in the implementation of Law No. 8 Year 2016 is related to the interpretation of 2% and 1% in the law. There is a different interpretation of Article 53 of the Law No. 8 Year 2016 that sets 2% and 1% quota for disability employment. It is because there are no guidelines for both government and private entities in applying the provision. In practice, government institutions apply this provision by allocating 2% in every term of civil servant recruitment. Whereas, the Law No. 8 Year 2016 requires each government institution to hire at least 2% of the total numbers of employees. The lack of segregated data, including the number of working women with disabilities, both in public and private sectors, is one challenge in applying the 2% and 1% quota provision.

• The implementation of provisions that ensure persons with disabilities’ right to employment remains challenging due to the lack of propagation to the local level. Even policies at local level are not widely disseminated to all private entities. As a result, discrimination and violations in accessing employment for women with disabilities, starting from the job requirements, recruitment, selection, to finally acceptance at workplace and within the workplace. The protection assurance is still limited to operational matters such as facility, social security, or accessibility, which often cause women with disabilities unable to work professionally due to unhealthy work relationships (such as workplace bullying). In Central Java, one victim had suffered from constant verbal bullying in her workplace. She was so stressed out that she decided to quit from the job.

• The third challenge is the lack of public facilities for persons with disabilities. The lack of accessibility and reasonable accommodations for different types of disability also still became a challenge on this matter. It raises the stigma and discrimination for those who are accepted as civil servants or private employees. The lack of accessibility also makes persons with disabilities question themselves and to be transferred to jobs that are not suitable to their capacity and capability. For instance, a blind civil servant that is not equipped with an accessible computer, a staff with physical disability who works in an inaccessible office, and so on. This happened to a woman with physical disability who was discriminated against in her workplace at a state-owned company in Central Java. Unfortunately, there were no significant efforts taken by her supervisor to eliminate the discrimination, thus, she decided to quit her job.

• Persons with disabilities currently publicly reported their cases to the local governments, state recruitment agency, and the ministry of social affairs regarding the rejection result during the state official’s recruitment process because of their disabilities. One of the cases involved a woman with disability; Dr. Romi S. Ismael, who applied as a dentist in Puskesmas (community healthcare service) in West Sumatra, was rejected because of her physical limitation. However, it does not guarantee the practice will not reoccur in other regions both in the center and local government recruitment.

• The forth challenge is related to lack of employment due to low education status. Statistically, 45.74% of persons with disabilities never attend or finish primary school. The experiences of Lampung Provincial Vocational Training Center (BLK), for instance, since 2017 opens opportunities for people with disabilities to get skills training. The enthusiasm of persons with disabilities who are high enough to get skills training and interest in work has led to an increase in the number of participants with disabilities in the BLK. In 2017 participants with disabilities were 18 people, and in 2018 increased to 68 people. This significant increase was not matched by the distribution of workers with disabilities in various sectors of the company related to their education background and skills. This is due to a number of things, including a low education status and some that do not have educational status, as well as the absence of competency tests for participants with disabilities, as a condition for the distribution of labor.

• The vocational training center is intended for people who already have educational status, at least having completed senior secondary education. The fact is that persons with disabilities who are accepted by BLK do not have senior secondary education status, some even have never attended school. This is a problem when the BLK will channel persons with disabilities to the world of work. Problems faced by BLK, persons with disabilities cannot be included in competency tests on the skills they have acquired. In addition, the BLK cannot distribute persons with disabilities to recipients of work because of the educational status and stigma of the BLK who have not fully considered that persons with disabilities can work.

• In vocational training or schools, vocational schools/training should provide mentorship facilities during internships with a different duration than for non-disabled individuals, including temporary facilitation for workplaces and marketing of products produced. This is because the quality of education or teaching received by deaf individuals, although they have graduated at the same level as non-disabled children, is very different in terms of quality. This is also what causes deaf individuals to mostly work as office boys or in warehouse departments.

• The lack of skills of women with disabilities, so they cannot fill in the allocated quota, be it as a civil servant or as a private employee. This is closely related to the disability vocational education and the government’s commitment in placing women with disabilities into the workforce after they have their vocational training. In a case in Sidoarjo, East Java, a divorced woman with physical disability with one child experienced the effect of the stigma attached to disability. She struggled to find a job because she did not have a proper education and the required skills. As a result, she could not raise her only child properly. Vocational schools for children/persons with intellectual disabilities do not exist until now and therefore make persons with intellectual disabilities increasingly marginalized because they do not have or are not trained in skills they can use to do a job that can eventually become capital for work.

• The fifth challenge is related to the administrative requirement, especially Mental Health Certificate requirements for all of work/job recruitment. Adversities are also found by the group of psychosocial disabilities who apply for employment in state-own and private agencies as they are required to include a letter of health confirmation that informs mental and physical condition. If they are ineligible because of mental conditions, they will not acquire their wished employment. Furthermore, psychosocial disabilities also address the need for day leaves for regular checks into the doctor without decreasing their annual paid leaves. The working method and time flexibility will significantly help people with psychosocial disabilities in the working environment.

• This discrimination takes place in the form of Mental Health Certificate requirements that must be fulfilled by every job seekers in Indonesia who wish to apply to be a civil servant, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private companies. The requirement for a mental health certificate is based on Government Regulation No. 11 Year 2017 on the Management of Civil Servants. Article 23 of the regulation states that all persons who wish to apply to become a civil servant must be physically and mentally sound in accordance with the requirements of the position being applied for.

• Another factor related to the administrative issue is in the recruitment process, the government has set up a special formation for persons with disabilities, but it does not give a chance for persons with disabilities to compete in a regular formation. As the result, even though persons with disabilities can compete, they may be prone to discrimination or their numbers become too small, as shown in a case occurred in Solok, West Sumatera. A woman who uses a wheelchair passed the test of civil servant recruitment as a doctor, but the decision was dismissed by Solok City Administration because the recruitment was not according to the formation. After receiving strong protest from many OPDs, the Minister of State Apparatus Empowerment restored the decision.

• The sixth challenge is related to the data of people with disabilities in Indonesia. As mentioned in the ILO report (2017), the lack of accurate data on the number of persons with disabilities acts as a brake on a range of actions and measures that could be taken otherwise. In fact, there is no accurate and comprehensive data regarding persons with disabilities in Indonesia.

Vocational Training and Employment of Persons with Disabilities

• The Minister of Manpower Decree No. 205 of 1999 on Vocational Training and Employment of Persons with Disabilities has limited the jobs for persons with disabilities according to the type of disability, reinforcing the stereotypes of disabilities. For example, visual disabilities are identical with masseurs, physical disabilities are identified with tailors, people with hearing loss is synonymous with jobs done in a noisy place, while intellectual disabilities are deemed as weaving.

• Despite the existence of the policy, the concern about employment service for persons with disabilities is growing. The situation is inevitable since many persons with disabilities in Indonesia are “underemployed, engaged in insecure jobs, and have less opportunity to advance their careers”. The statistics of Population Census 2010 also showcases that persons with disabilities in Indonesia face employment problems. Among citizens aged 15 and above, there are 12.15% of people who live with disabilities, 1.87% of them with severe disability and 10.29% with mild disability. Their participation in the labor force is as low as 20.27% (severe disability) and 56.72% (mild disability), much lower than the participation of those without disabilities at 70.40%.

• The government's efforts to create job opportunities have also not been inclusive, including during the implementation of regional job fairs. In 2019, for example, in South Sulawesi, the Makassar City Manpower Office held a Job Fair Week 3 times, but only 1 time was informed to and attended by disabled persons' organizations and persons with disabilities. To date, the implementation of Job Fairs does not provide reasonable accommodation, such as sign language interpreters on the grounds of no budget, thus the disabled organizations need to provide it. There is a strong suspicion that this practice also occurs in other regions, not only in South Sulawesi.

• According to data by the National Workforce Survey (SAKERNAS) 2017, the population of persons with disabilities is 21,930,529 people. The number of disability workforce is 11,224 673 people or 51.18%. Meanwhile, the number of employed Disability Workforce is 10,810,451 people or 96.31%, while open unemployment amounted to 414,222 people or 3.69%. There are still 48.82% (10,705,845 people) unemployed workforce that require decent work.

• National Labor Force Survey 2019 showcases, there are 0.28% of participation of people with disabilities in Indonesia above 15 years in the workforce and 0.31% in 2018. In terms of sex, the proportion of male workers is higher than women. In 2018, male workers were 0.33% and women were 0.28. While in 2019, men would be 0.31% and women would be 0.24%. Economically active population in Indonesia by age and sex group in 2019 is 126,515,119 in total male and female.

• The table below shows the distribution of the proportion of the worker population with disabilities according to employment status in Indonesia. In 2019, the occupation distribution worked with the greatest disability among self-employed workers, namely 29.19%. Then in the status of self-employed with non-permanent workers as much as 20.9%. Disability persons as employees as much as 19.77% of labor status. The smallest proportion is in self-employed with permanent or paid workers, namely 3.99%.

• According to ILO in 2017, people with disabilities are mostly working in informal sectors with relatively lower take-home pay to persons without disabilities. The percentage of people with mild and severe disabilities who work in informal jobs is 64.93 percent and 75.80 percent respectively. This number is much higher compared to persons with disabilities at only 49.27 percent.

• The high number of informal workers with disabilities is related to the difficulty of persons with disabilities reaching the requirements and criteria for formal employment. People with intellectual disabilities, for instance, mostly work in contemporary jobs such as trading, selling, self-employment, and other types because they can not pursue a permanent job in private and state-own agencies. Therefore, people with intellectual disabilities find it more convenient to work as designers with a small team to produce their products, clothes, and crafts.

2% Quota for Persons with Disabilities

• The government interprets 2% as the minimum recruitment quota instead of manpower. The implementation of Law No. 8 Year 2016 focuses on the working distribution and achieving the enrollment of persons with disabilities as figured in the minimum quota. The Ministerial Regulation (Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform/PANRB) No. 23 Year 2019 stipulates that people with all forms of disabilities can apply for any types of jobs. The clauses that regulate special and general application procedures are deemed discriminatory as they suggest that persons with disabilities can only take on certain jobs. In practices, persons with disabilities also have to present a doctor’s statement explaining the degree of their disabilities.

• There is no segregated data related to persons with disabilities working in the government... existing employee data is only based on age and sex. Confirmation of the unavailability of segregated data regarding persons with disabilities was confirmed by persons with disabilities with civil servant status within the South Sulawesi Provincial Government and the Ministry of Social Affairs based on the employment documents they received.

• Data related to the number of persons with disabilities working in the government is difficult to obtain; disabled persons' organizations once requested it directly from the South Sulawesi Provincial Civil Service Agency (BKD) but it was not provided for reasons of confidentiality.

• Another challenge is that discrimination still frequently occurs based on disability in employment and hiring. One case occurred in Yogyakarta, a person with cerebral palsy passed the administrative test, but during the face-to-face interview, because the person with Cerebral Palsy had a speech impediment, they were ultimately not accepted.

• To date, no person with an intellectual disability has been accepted to work in the formal sector due to the requirement to have a diploma/certificate in the available job vacancies. Yet discrimination in the education sector makes it almost impossible for persons with intellectual disabilities to obtain an equivalent diploma/certificate in the first place. Even those who have a special needs school diploma/certificate (SLB-A or C) are still stigmatized as being unable to "think" and therefore cannot possibly work and fill the available vacancies. There are large companies that accept people with Down syndrome for internships, covered by the media, and so on, but after the internship is over there is no follow-up; not a single intern is then hired as an employee. So this is more for the company's publicity interests.

•  In general, persons with disabilities are also still vulnerable to termination of employment after they are accepted, due to inadequate work support for them in accordance with their disability. Throughout 2016 – 2019, Bipolar Care Indonesia recorded at least 12 cases of discrimination in the workplace experienced by persons with mental disabilities, with the most common case being unilateral termination due to having a mental disorder. One case was experienced by a woman with the initial N who worked as a doctor in a government hospital, N, who had Bipolar disorder, was unilaterally terminated in 2017 on the grounds of fear of endangering patients.

No data available