Employers Obligations on Maternal and Child Welfare under Law No. 4 of 2024
Indonesia has recently enacted Law No. 4 of 2024 on Welfare of Mothers and Children During the First One Thousand Days of Life ("Law 4/2024"), to become a manifestation of support for working mothers in providing better maternity care in the workplace.
For a general overview of Law 4/2024, this article provides our summary of the employer’s aspects of Law 4/2024, which includes (i) Maternity Leave, (ii) Paternity Leave (iii) Adequate Facility for Working Mothers, and (iv) Concluding Remarks.
New Provision on Maternity Leave Entitlement
Working mothers are entitled to a maternity leave of, at least, 3 (three) months, and the leave can be extended for another 3 (three) months as required upon special conditions as permitted or recommended by a doctor. Special conditions refer to:
a. Mothers who have been diagnosed with health issues, health disorders, and/or postpartum (after birth) complications or miscarriage; and/or
b. Children who are born with health issues, health disorders, and/or complications. Working mothers have the right to rest for an additional 1.5 (one and a half) months due to miscarriage as proven and certified by a doctor, obstetrician, or gynecologist (Article 4 paragraph (3) and (5) of Law 4/2024).
A maternity leave shall be considered a paid leave, and the relevant working mothers cannot be terminated or dismissed for taking the leave. During a maternity leave, employers are required to pay their employers’ wages in full for the first 4 (four) months, and then 75% (seventy-five percent) of the wages for the fifth and sixth months of the leave (Article 5 of Law 4/2024).
Paternity Leave
Husbands are entitled to a paternity leave during childbirth, for up to 2 (two) days, with an additional 3 (three) days at maximum as agreed with the employer. If his spouse experiences miscarriage, a working husband may request paternity leave for 2 (two) days.
In addition to a paternity leave for childbirth or miscarriage, a working husband may be granted additional leave without any minimum number of leave days (as agreed by the employer) due to the following conditions:
a. Their wife has health issues, health disorders, and/or postpartum complications or miscarriage;
b. The Child is born with health issues, health disorders, and/or complications;
c. The wife who gave birth passed away; and/or
d. The newborn baby passed away.
(Article 6 of Law 4/2024)
Adequate Facility for Working Mothers
In addition to the obligations, a company or an employer that hires working mothers is required to provide an adequate facility for working mothers in the form of:
a. Health service facilities;
b. Lactation rooms; and
c. Daycare centres.
As required by Article 30 of Law 4/2024, a daycare center as mentioned in point c above may be a community-based facility. These centers can utilize green open spaces. A company or employer failing to comply with this requirement may be subject to the administrative sanctions imposed by the government (Article 31 of Law 4/2024). However, Law 4/2024 does not elaborate on the details of the sanctions or procedure due to non-compliance.
Since the government has yet to establish an implementing regulation of Law 4/2024, we expect that the details of administrative sanctions and their procedures will be regulated in the forthcoming implementing regulation. Article 45 of Law 4/2024 states that the government is given a maximum of two (2) years to issue the implementing regulation.
Concluding Remarks
The issuance of Law 4/2024 marks a significant change of provisions on welfare of mothers, especially working mothers, and children in Indonesia. However, some controvercies regarding the maternity leave can lead to discrimination against working mothers. Although certain conditions should be met by the relevant workers, implementation of the new entitlements could cause misunderstanding. Therefore, the issues on how an employer implements various provisions under the law will be subject to further stipulation under the implementing regulation of Law 4/2024.
The article above was prepared by Audria Putri (Senior Associate), Mia Sari (Senior Associate), and M. Irfan Yusuf (Associate).
