Manpower bill `infringes workers rights'<\/p>\n
By Ida Indawati Khouw<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Restrictions on workers' right to strike in a
\ncontroversial manpower bill infringe workers' basic rights, says
\nlabor expert Vedi Hadiz.<\/p>\n
Vedi, a research fellow from Western Australia's Murdoch
\nUniversity, told The Jakarta Post last week: "The bill attacks an
\ninternationally recognized principle, the right of workers to
\nstrike."<\/p>\n
He said the most damaging aspect of the bill was Article 86,
\nwhich clarifies another part of the bill that restricts workers'
\nright to invite others to strike.<\/p>\n
"It's strange. Labor strikes only become effective when they
\nare done collectively," Vedi said.<\/p>\n
He said he was also concerned by provisions in articles 81 and
\n87 that say that a strike can only be held in a company area,
\nstriking workers will not be paid, authorities must be notified
\nthree days before a strike and that strikes must not disturb
\nsecurity and order.<\/p>\n
Vedi said he agreed with those requesting the House of
\nRepresentatives not to endorse the bill.<\/p>\n
Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief ushered in the House's first
\nreading of the manpower bill in mid-June with a call for workers
\nand the public not to turn the controversial document into a
\n"political issue".<\/p>\n
"Don't let it become a political issue that could be exploited
\nby certain parties to harm the interests of workers," he said.<\/p>\n
Labor activists and other groups had, when the bill was
\nsubmitted earlier this year, criticized the document for stifling
\nworkers' rights. For instance, the bill seeks to allow lockouts
\nby revoking the 1963 Law No. 7 on the prohibition of strikes and
\nlockouts in companies and strategic bodies.<\/p>\n
Comprising 18 chapters and 159 articles, the bill has been
\ndrafted as an umbrella law for the 14 labor regulations made
\nbetween 1887, during the Dutch colonial period, and 1969.<\/p>\n
Stability<\/p>\n
Vedi said he was not surprised by the bill's tight regulations
\ngiven "the New Order government's obsession with political
\nstability".<\/p>\n
"Since the beginning of the New Order, the government has
\nemphasized control and the demobilization of worker's social
\npower," he said.<\/p>\n
Vedi said he regretted that the government still blamed "third
\nparties" when they faced with industrial action.<\/p>\n
"It's nonsense, the government patronizes workers when it
\nsuggests that they have no capacity to do anything by
\nthemselves."<\/p>\n
Vedi said that national development had produced a more
\neducated workforce.<\/p>\n
Vedi learnt this firsthand while attending many workers'
\nmeetings for his doctoral dissertation at Murdoch University
\ntitled Contradictions of Corporatism: Workers and the State in
\nNew Order Indonesia.<\/p>\n
In his research, Vedi found a new culture among workers in
\nwhich they were more aware of their rights, struggled harder for
\ntheir rights and were more capable of working through
\norganizations they had set up independently.<\/p>\n
Vedi said the new culture grew from workers' awareness that
\ntheir struggle in Jakarta and other big urban centers was their
\nfuture and that they could not go back to village life.<\/p>\n
"Thirty years ago they might go to Jakarta for a short time,
\nbut now there is no work in the villages and the land for farming
\nhas shrunk.<\/p>\n
"That is one of the reasons why recently there have been
\nstrikes, a rise in industrial unrest and the emergence of labor
\norganizations," he said.<\/p>\n
Internationalization<\/p>\n
He said Indonesia's emergence as a center for labor-intensive
\nmanufacturing had also contributed to the new culture.<\/p>\n
"Automatically, it accelerates the development and maturation
\nof the new industrial working class, something which did not
\nexist 20 to 30 years ago," Vedi said.<\/p>\n
But he said internationalization had also worked against the
\ninterests of workers in that the mobility of capital weakened the
\nrelative power of workers.<\/p>\n
"Capital puts pressure on government to create 'comfortable'
\nconditions for it," Vedi said.<\/p>\n
He said one of the reasons investors wanted to invest in
\nIndonesia was that labor was cheap and obedient and the country
\nwas politically stable.<\/p>\n
"Now that other countries offer the same conditions, the
\ngovernment is taking tight control of worker unions to please
\ninvestors," he said.<\/p>\n
Vedi said the competitive potential of labor in Indonesia was
\nweakened further by the government's obsession with political
\nstability.<\/p>\n
"Industrial unrest causes the government to feel
\nuncomfortable" he said.<\/p>\n
But he said labor strikes were increasing because better
\neducation has helped increase workers' awareness of their rights.<\/p>\n
Vedi said the government should not put tighter controls on
\nworkers through the manpower bill. "It won't work. There will
\nalways be strikes because workers aspirations are yet to be
\naccommodated."<\/p>\n
The labor issue was a complex economic, sociological and
\npolitical problem that had to be handled with several
\nsimultaneous approaches, Vedi said.<\/p>",
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