Activists demand increase in wages
JAKARTA (JP): About 70 labor activists and students pressed their demand yesterday that the government raise Indonesian workers' daily minimum wage to Rp 7,000 (US$3) during a demonstration at the House of Representatives.
The activists, from the Center for Indonesian Workers' Struggle (PPBI) and Solidarity of Indonesian Students for Democracy (SMID), received the full support of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction in the House.
Before being welcomed by legislators Aberson Marle Sihaloho and Ignatius Suwardi, the banner-waving activists, which came from several major cities in Java, staged a sit-in protest in the House foyer.
"Raise wages and bring prices down", one poster read. "Raise the minimum daily wage to Rp 7,000" read others. The protesters chanted slogans criticizing what they saw as exploitation of workers and collusion between officials and businessmen. They also denounced the military's intervention in labor disputes.
Daily minimum wages currently range from Rp 3,000 in Central Java and South Sulawesi to Rp 4,600 in Greater Jakarta.
Machines
"The workers are being treated like machines," PPBI Chairwoman Dita Sari said.
Yesterday's protest was held to mark the PPBI's first anniversary.
PPBI Secretary-General Wilson called on the PDI faction in the House to review the price index used to set the daily minimum wage, saying workers needed not only food and clothes, but also houses, recreation and education.
Aberson said the PDI fully supports the activists' demands.
"What can you do with a daily wage of Rp 4,000?," he asked.
Aberson said that workers' insistence on having their minimum daily wages increased is by no means unlawful, as has been claimed by some government officials.
The 1945 Constitution states that all citizens have the right to a decent livelihood and so the workers' demand is only constitutional, he said.
The legislator said that the current wage levels had been determined on the basis of minimum physical needs and were insufficient to help the millions of Indonesians still living below the poverty line.
Government statistics show that some 27 million of Indonesia's 194 million people live in absolute poverty.
Separately, Director General for Industrial Relations and Labor Standards Suwarto said the labor activists were being unrealistic. He said the government could not set a national daily minimum wage because of the varying situations of companies.
"If the current minimum wages are raised to Rp 7,000, many small-scale companies will collapse and this could endanger the national economy," he said.
He said most medium-scale and large-scale companies pay their workers well in excess of the relevant minimum wage.
"If workers want their wages to be raised, they can always negotiate about it with their the management," he added.
Asked about freedom of association, Suwarto said Indonesian workers are free to organize.
He said the All-Indonesian Workers Union has been re- structured into 13 sectoral unions and that about 900 labor unions have been established by workers in their work places. (rms/pan)