The controversial Job Creation Law marked a worrisome approach by prioritizing the latter, the passage of which was met with widespread protests, along with condemnation from labor unions and environmental groups. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s recent regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) on job creation accommodates some of the requests made by the labor unions and replaces the original job creation law.

While this does indicate a positive step in terms of protecting human rights for workers, other issues have evaded the spotlight while also experiencing significant reversals despite the decades of progress that have been made. Amongst these issues is the exacerbation of gender disparities in unpaid care work.

Indonesia is unique in that it has one of the highest discrepancies in unpaid care work by women in Southeast Asia, at almost double the average. The financial stress onset caused by the pandemic, in conjunction with lockdowns, widespread disease and the closure of schools and many care facilities placed additional care demands on women.

Ultimately, this forced many women out of work in an already hostile and volatile labor market with several barriers to re-entry. Because the problem of unpaid care work by women goes unnoticed, approximately 40 percent of Indonesian women exit the workforce due to childcare and marital obligations. Women’s labor-force participation, their economic autonomy, bargaining power and representation in informal work are all adversely impacted as a result.

This adverse impact foregrounded the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) report “Care at Work: Investing in Care Leave and Services for a More Gender Equal World of Work”, launched in Indonesia in November of 2022.The report argues for a holistic and all-encompassing reform to care policy, purporting that its advocacy for a transformative care-policy package generates jobs, decent work, solidifies social-protection schemes and tackles long-standing gender inequalities.

This comprehensive and landmark report in light of global post-pandemic recovery examines the various aspects of care reform, ranging from parental leave, protections for nursing women, childcare reform and much more.

The government apparatus has a pivotal role to play in combating this issue through policy, regulations and enforcement, but that is not to say that businesses do not have a vital role in facilitating and reforming care policy to address the wider issue of gender discrepancies in unpaid-care work.

Broadly, there are two reasons that businesses must take an active role in implementing these policies and tackling these issues. First, there is the human rights aspect; businesses are to abide by the standards in the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGP) on Business and Human Rights, which outline corporate responsibilities to protect, adhere to and implement procedures to protect employee human rights.

The UNGPs place these responsibilities on businesses irrespective of government action. A government’s failure or inaction in protecting human rights is no excuse for a business to not adhere to these guiding principles. When it comes to unpaid care work, it is the right to safe, decent work and the right to equal pay that are under threat and cannot be ignored by businesses.

Second, there is perhaps the less altruistic yet nevertheless important reason that businesses should strive to create a safe, flexible and welcoming workplace for their employees. The prioritization of employee well-being incentivizes new recruitments and worker retention, as well as cultivating an inclusive and healthy work environment.

There are entrenched social and cultural norms that place the onus of domestic responsibilities on women. Cultural dimensions contribute to an over-reliance on unpaid care work performed by women during the pandemic. While the role of men in domestic responsibilities is recognized as greater than ever, there still exists a belief that women’s primary role is as wives and mothers first.

Businesses cannot transform a culture overnight, but they can, in their capacity, implement procedures and policies that remove obstacles for women in their employment.

So, what can businesses do? Quite a few things.

Investing and supporting expectant mothers is a crucial step that includes supporting flexible work (such as work from home), providing leave for prenatal medical examinations, care leave, supporting breastfeeding and other forms of additional support. While Indonesia’s legally guaranteed paid nursing breaks are silent on the specifics, businesses should provide greater flexibility in this regard as well.

Employment packages that provide longer and more substantial parental leave not only allow for more maternity leave than the state minimum, but also address the deeply unequal state laws relating to paternity leave. Empowering fathers to take leave contributes to alleviating the overburdening of domestic and parental responsibilities placed on mothers, and also addresses the absence of a national childcare service in Indonesia.

Partnering with childcare providers or (for larger corporations) implementing daycare facilities in the workplace also addresses factors contributing to women exiting employment as a result of care responsibilities.

Addressing unpaid care responsibilities attended to by women requires a multifaceted approach, and the workplace is an important place to begin the process. The government, advocacy groups, unions and many other actors have a responsibility to address the issue of gender inequality in unpaid care work, but so do businesses.

In their own way, businesses should take steps to create safe, flexible employment and develop inclusive workplaces that assist those performing unpaid care work, primarily women, to retain their employment.

State inaction is no excuse, just as there is no excuse for inaction on human rights.

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The writer is a human rights specialist, Foundation for International Human Rights Reporting Standards (FIHRRST).