4,000 Salim group workers stage pay protest at House
4,000 Salim group workers stage pay protest at House
JAKARTA (JP): Some 4,000 workers of PT Indomulti Inti
Industri, a shoe factory of the Salim Group, staged a peaceful
protest yesterday at the House of Representatives.
The workers traveled to the House in hired buses from the
company's plant in Citeureup subdistrict to demand that the
company comply with the government's minimum wage policy.
The workers, mainly long-time employees of the company, were
received by members of the House's Armed Forces faction. Some 150
people representing the workers met with eight members of the
faction.
"We receive unfair treatment from the company's management as
we are only paid for 26 working days per month, while our newer,
colleagues are paid for 30 working days," Petinus Zeboa,
spokesperson for the protesters, told the faction members.
Petinus said that most of the junior employees received Rp
156,000 each last month, while he received Rp 157,000 (US$67)
despite working there much longer than them.
He said that the company's treatment was against the newly-
implemented ministerial decree on minimum wages.
The decree, which became effective on April 1, increased the
daily minimum wage by 10.63 percent. The decree also stipulates
that permanent workers' monthly salaries must be calculated on 30
working days, not 26 days.
Rumini, another representative, said the company met with the
local chapter of the Ministry of Manpower in regard to the new
wage system.
"They did not include eligible representative workers in the
dialog," she said.
She said the workers invited to the meeting were of the
company's choice, not theirs.
Producing branded shoes, the company has four shoe
manufacturing factories. Each unit employs about 7,000 workers.
The protesters were from the first factory.
Haris Sudarno, who chaired the meeting, told the workers that
the faction would look into their reports.
"We will forward your reports to the government," he said,
adding that the faction did not have the authority to
investigative the issue itself.
He, however, maintained that the implementation of the new
wage policy should not differentiate between old and new
employees.
He said that employers should report to the government if they
want to delay implementing the new wage policy.
A manpower ministry report reveals that of 365 companies that
have lodged requests with the Ministry of Manpower to postpone
introducing the new minimum wage, 52 have been approved and
several have been rejected, while the rest are still being
processed.
The 1969 Labor Law states that employers failing to pay the
government-set minimum wage are liable to three-months'
imprisonment or a Rp 100,000 fine.
Meanwhile, Yakub Natadipraja, a director of PT Indomulti Inti
Industri, said that his company had complied with the new minimum
wage policy.
"We have paid our workers according to the local minimum wage
of Rp 5,200 per day per person since last month," he said.
He, however, failed to explain the reason why the company has
treated its old employees differently.(imn)