Unions call for equal partnership in industry<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Labor activists called on management to treat
\nlabor unions as equal partners in bipartite negotiations in an
\nattempt to create mutually beneficial relations.<\/p>\n
Muchtar Pakpahan, chairman of the Indonesian Prosperity Trade
\nUnion (SBSI), maintained that the increasing wave of labor
\nstrikes over the last two years were in large part due to
\nmanagements' ignorance of poor labor conditions.<\/p>\n
\"Industrial strikes have been the last resort for workers to
\nfight labor oppression...Entering the reform era, workers have
\nbecome more aware of their rights,\" he said in a seminar on
\nbusiness and labor on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The daylong seminar which also featured local and foreign
\nbusinessmen was jointly organized by the Castle Group and local
\nmedia organizations Tempo, Gatra, Suara Pembaruan, The Indonesian
\nObserver, Media Indonesia and The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Muchtar said that as we enter a period of reform,
\nglobalization and free-trade, both local and foreign investors
\nand authorities can no longer treat workers as objects.<\/p>\n
He claimed that many employers were still paying off
\ngovernment officials and security authorities in order to resolve
\ninternal disputes and strikes, instead of going to the
\nnegotiating table.<\/p>\n
\"I want to state here and now that Indonesia can no longer
\nprovide cheap labor for foreign investors,\" Muchtar asserted.<\/p>\n
\"Military and police intervention in labor disputes will never
\noffer a permanent and peaceful solution,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Muchtar also believed that workers' strikes in the past would
\nnot have become so violent, with acts involving the destruction
\nof their workplaces, if they had been treated fairly and humanely
\nat work in the first place.<\/p>\n
\"It would be better and more effective for employers to pay
\ntheir workers a higher salary and invest in improving their
\nskills and welfare rather than pay huge amounts of money to the
\ngovernment and military officials for their assistance,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Dita Indah Sari, chairwoman of the National Front for
\nIndonesian Workers Unity (FNPBI), expressed disappointment with
\nthe government and political parties which she claimed did not
\nhave a strong enough commitment to improving labor conditions.<\/p>\n
Workers will continue to face a bleak future unless the
\ngovernment has the political commitment to enforce the law and
\ncreate legal certainty, she said.<\/p>\n
She claimed that many companies still pay workers below set
\nminimum wages and often violate rules on annual leave, overtime
\npayment, incentives, health facilities, bipartite negotiations
\nand women workers' rights.<\/p>\n
She further warned political parties that they should be more
\nconcerned with labor conditions if they wished to attract votes
\nin the forthcoming election.<\/p>\n
\"Parties should bear in mind that 55 percent of voters in the
\nlast election were workers,\" she remarked.<\/p>\n
Muhammad Rodja, secretary general of the Reformed All
\nIndonesian Workers Union (SPSI Reformasi), called on political
\nparties, the government, employers and labor unions to form an
\nalliance to design regulations and programs to improve labor
\nconditions.<\/p>\n
\"Without such an alliance future labor conditions will remain
\nas bad as during the New Order era,\" he said.(rms)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/unions-call-for-equal-partnership-in-industry-1447893297",
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