Batam employers oppose wage rise

Fadli, The Jakarta Post/Batam

Businesspeople oppose Riau Islands acting governor Ismeth Abdullah's plan to review the monthly minimum wage of Rp 635,000 (US$70.50) on the industrial island of Batam.

Representatives of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and operators of local industrial areas met with members of the Batam legislative council on Monday to express their opposition to any wage hike.

The chairman of the Riau Islands Apindo branch, Abidin, said his office would sue Ismeth should the governor push forward with a plan to increase the 2005 minimum wage from Rp 635,000, which was set during a tripartite meeting in Batam on Oct. 29.

Abidin quoted the head of the Riau Islands Manpower Office, Azman Taufik, as saying the government had promised to revise Batam's minimum wage in a response to a recent demonstration by thousands of workers.

"This promise shows that the governor acted on his own without considering the outcome of the tripartite meeting. Therefore, we will sue the governor through the state administrative court," he told four Batam councillors who received the businesspeople.

Abidin said workers' demand that the minimum wage be increased to Rp 728,000 a month was "unrealistic" for domestic and foreign investors in Batam.

Any move to increase the wage would deter investors from coming to Batam, he said.

"We communicated the tripartite decision on the new wage for the island city to prospective investors and none of them objected to it. If the wage was raised, they would certainly cancel investments here," Abidin said.

The secretary of the Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers, Deny Rifa'i, said Ismeth would meet with labor activists on Tuesday to hear their views on the new minimum wage for 2005.

If the Batam government refuses to set the new wage at Rp 728,000, thousands of FSPMI members will strike in Batam, Deny said.

"If the governor does not want to revise the wage, we will stage a major strike to press for the fulfillment of our demand," he said.

Deny said that at the Oct. 29 tripartite meeting that set the new wage at Rp 635,000, the workers were represented by "irresponsible people". He did not identify these people.

Muhammad Kholiq of Commission IV of the Batam council said he wished workers and employers had reached a decision on the new minimum wage before the tripartite meeting issued a decision on the matter.