48 companies punished under labor legislation<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Forty-eight companies in Indonesia were punished
\nfor violating the country's labor laws in the 1994\/1995 fiscal
\nyear, the Ministry of Manpower announced yesterday.<\/p>\n
Director General for Industrial Relations and Labor Standards
\nSuwarto told reporters that the government had prosecuted 202
\ncompanies between April 1994 and March 1995 for violating a host
\nof labor regulations, including those concerning minimum wages,
\novertime pay and social insurance.<\/p>\n
The 48 firms convicted received penalties ranging between Rp
\n50,000 and Rp 5 million (approximately US$ 2,272). The owners of
\nfour of the 48 companies chose not to pay fines. Instead, they
\nwere imprisoned for a period of up to 15 days.<\/p>\n
Suwarto acknowledged that the penalties might be perceived as
\nbeing too lenient.<\/p>\n
\"Okay, so the fines were rather small, but they were in
\naccordance with the laws,\" Suwarto said, immediately adding that
\nthe Ministry of Manpower was currently preparing a bill to amend
\nthe existing labor laws which govern penalties.<\/p>\n
The 48 companies already penalized are located in the
\nprovinces of North and South Sumatra, Jakarta, West and East
\nJava, Bali and West Nusa Tenggara.<\/p>\n
Five other companies are currently facing trial for similar
\nviolations, he said.<\/p>\n
Nine other provincial offices of the ministry have also found
\nviolations but have not brought the companies to court because
\nthe owners immediately agreed to stop the violations.<\/p>\n
Those provinces are West, Central, South and East Kalimantan,
\nYogyakarta, East Timor, and North, Central and Southeast
\nSulawesi.<\/p>\n
The ministry has been campaigning hard to punish companies
\nthat continue to violate the labor laws, particularly the minimum
\nwage regulations.<\/p>\n
Ministers Abdul Latief is now planning to publicize the names
\nof companies that are repeat offenders and to circulate the list
\nto other government agencies and commercial banks in the hope
\nthat they will deny the recalcitrant companies services or loans.<\/p>\n
Suwarto also disclosed yesterday that there were far fewer
\nworkers' strikes in the first five months of this year as
\ncompared with last year.<\/p>\n
He said the government recorded 31 strikes nationwide between
\nJanuary and May. Seven of them were caused by the companies'
\nfailure to implement the officially-set minimum wages regulation.<\/p>\n
During the same period last year, 225 strikes took place and
\n94 of them concerned minimum wages, he said.<\/p>\n
In a related development, the Saudi Arabian embassy announced
\nyesterday that the decline in the number of Indonesian workers
\nemployed in Saudi Arabia has resulted from the high cost of
\nimporting them.<\/p>\n
In what appears to be a response to Indonesian labor
\nexporters' lamentations about Saudi Arabia's tough new procedural
\nlaws, the embassy said that \"the Interior Ministry of Saudi
\nArabia leaves it to its citizens to decide whether to import
\nlaborers; it never limits the number of Indonesian workers\".<\/p>\n
The statement acknowledged that the embassy has been receiving
\nquestions about the decline in the number of Indonesian workers
\nexported to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
\"Due to the high cost of importing Indonesian workers, Saudi
\ncitizens will turn to other countries with cheaper costs and
\neasier import procedures.\"<\/p>\n
A number of labor suppliers have recently criticized Riyadh's
\ndecision to hike working visa fee by 2,000 percent and to require
\nAIDS-free certificates from incoming workers.<\/p>\n
The suppliers have said that the new regulations will make it
\nvirtually impossible for them to send workers to Saudi Arabia,
\nwhich has, until now, been a major destination for Indonesians
\nseeking employment abroad.(swe)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/48-companies-punished-under-labor-legislation-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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