Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah made the remarks at the Merdeka Barat Forum 9 (West Merdeka Forum 9) virtual discussion, which was accessed from here on Monday.
"It takes maximum effort to improve competency, especially for our prospective workers. We ensure competency improvement and training through BLK, both central and local government BLKs as well as community BLKs," she said.
She noted that to increase employment, women workers need to have the required competencies. With competencies, the opportunities that workers have become wider.
Fauziyah affirmed that women and men workers have equal opportunities to join and improve their competencies in BLK.
She remarked that by participating in the training, the opportunities for female workers to enter the labor market would be higher.
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According to data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the unemployment rate for women in 2021 was lower than for men, namely 6.11 percent for women and 6.74 percent for men.
The minister noted that the female labor force participation rate, even though still below that of males, also increased from 53.13 percent in 2020 to 53.34 percent in 2021. In comparison, male labor force participation was 82.41 percent in 2020 and fell to 82.27 percent in 2021.
She also asserted that the Ministry of Manpower will continue to make efforts to improve protection for women workers, one of which is through the National Movement for Discrimination-free Workplace, either through the creation of an IT-based protection system, the preparation of guidelines for preventing sexual harassment, as well as the preparation of guidelines for equality and non-discrimination in the workplace.
"The Ministry of Manpower also encourages commitment from companies to include non-discrimination agreement for workers in the company regulation (PP) and collective labor agreement (PKB) involving workers and employers," she remarked.
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Translator: Prisca Triferna, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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