Limit foreign workers: Workers federation<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Federation of the All Indonesian Workers
\nUnion is calling on the government to limit the number of
\nexpatriates working in the country.<\/p>\n
Taxing them will not prevent them from taking jobs that could
\ngo to local workers, chairman Marzuki Ahmad said Thursday.<\/p>\n
\"Their number must be limited,\" Marzuki told a media
\nconference to preview the new year at his office.<\/p>\n
He estimated there were currently around 70,000 foreigners
\nworking in Indonesia, and their total wage bill comes to $200
\nmillion a month. This, he added, was hardly comparable to the
\ntiny remittance Indonesia received from its workers abroad.<\/p>\n
He supported the argument, put forward by economist Polin Pos
\nPos this week, that the large presence of foreign workers was a
\nhuge drain on the nation's foreign exchange earnings.<\/p>\n
He said he was confident Indonesian workers were just as good
\nas most expatriates.<\/p>\n
\"I can't accept the argument that local workers cannot take
\ntheir place,\" he said, reported Antara.<\/p>\n
He said the government has yet to show its political will to
\nrestrict the number of foreign workers.<\/p>\n
\"We still find too many foreign workers in certain places,\" he
\nsaid, adding that countries like Japan and South Korea also
\nimposed restrictions on foreign workers.<\/p>\n
He also suspected that outside the 70,000 or so registered
\nexpatriates, there were many foreigners working illegally in the
\ncountry, some of them coming on tourist visas.<\/p>\n
Marzuki, who took over the helm of the only government-
\nrecognized union in November from Bomer Pasaribu, called on the
\ngovernment to hike the minimum wage levels by an average of 16
\npercent this year.<\/p>\n
In the case of workers in Jakarta, the proposed hike will take
\ntheir monthly minimum wage to Rp 171,000 from Rp 156,000.<\/p>\n
He said the current minimum wage level only covered 92.5
\npercent of what constituted the minimum physical requirements of
\na single worker.<\/p>\n
The government last year awarded an average of 10.63 percent
\nincrease to the minimum wage levels across the country. This was
\nwell below the 16 to 17 percent sought by the union.<\/p>\n
Marzuki said this time, the union would not accept anything
\nless.<\/p>\n
Failure to comply could mean more strikes. \"I am not
\nresponsible for anything that happens then. Who can stop workers
\nfrom demanding what's rightfully theirs?\" he asked.<\/p>\n
Marzuki underscored the nation's commitment, as stipulated in
\nthe Broad Outlines of State Policy, that minimum wage levels
\nshould cover the minimum physical requirement by the end of the
\ncurrent Sixth Five Year Plan in 1999.<\/p>\n
He said companies should stop looking at their employees as
\nsimply workers because they were consumers too.<\/p>\n
Giving them higher salaries would not cause inflation, but
\nrather would bolster demand for more products, he said.<\/p>\n
Marzuki said the outgoing 1996 was still characterized by the
\nweak legal protection for workers.<\/p>\n
He highlighted the dispute between workers and the Hongkong
\nBank, in which 166 workers were fired.<\/p>\n
He said the union planned to set up units of activists who
\ncould be sent to assist with labor disputes anywhere.<\/p>\n
\"It will be like the police rapid reaction unit,\" Atika Karwa,
\nthe union's deputy chairperson, said. (03)<\/p>",
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