Businessmen told not to pay bribes

Businessmen told not to pay bribes

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief encouraged
businessmen yesterday to have the courage to refuse to pay bribes
in order to minimize "invisible costs" so they can pay their
workers more.

Businessmen should also stop offering bribes to government
officials and wasting their money to sponsor social events or
campaigns for socio-political organizations, he said.

"Labor costs should not swell because of invisible costs," he
told journalists.

Latief was responding to press reports that companies are
unable to pay their workers more because the employers have to
spend between 20 percent and 30 percent of the cost of running
their businesses to pay illegal fees and other bribes.

In comparison, companies spend only an estimated seven percent
of their total costs for their workers' salaries and allowances.

The well being of workers has been a burning issue since the
government announced its plan to increase the minimum regional
wages nationwide as of April.

Labor activists say that the invisible costs are to blame for
the current low salary standards because entrepreneurs include
the illegal levies in the calculation of their overall business
expenses.

Latief, a successful businessman, said that business people
should not be afraid to refuse to pay bribes to government
officials.

"There are the press, the nation's legislative body and the
vice president to report to in case of extortion involving
government officials," he said.

Latief questioned the estimate of between 20 percent to 30
percent of costs going for bribes. He said that proportion of
companies' total costs seemed high.

Latief added that although many employers felt pressured to
pay the invisible costs, others have deliberately collaborated
with government officials to keep their workers' salaries low.

"This is unfair. Employers and officials involved in such
bribery and collusion should be brought to court," Latief said.

A total of 96 businessmen were brought to court last year for
violating the daily minimum wage regulations and 16 of them have
been convicted.

Besides that, over a hundred officials of the Ministry of
Manpower were punished last year for various violations.

"Collusion and corruption, are two major enemies of
development. They must be eradicated to create a clean and
respectable government," he said.

Supervision

He said his office would tighten supervision in factories to
ensure that the planned raise in the regional minimum wages as of
this April is duly implemented.

He said all of the 152,000 registered companies across the
country have the financial capability to pay the minimum wage as
required by the government.

Latief recently issued several decrees stipulating the planned
raise in minimum daily wage levels by a range of from 11 percent
to 35 percent. He took this action to implement the government's
policy of raising the minimum wage to a level that will meet the
minimum physical needs of workers.

"We will no longer speak of the daily physical minimum as of
this April. New steps are being taken to raise the worker wages
to meet their basic needs," he said.

Asked about the possibility of designing a national wage
system to replace the daily minimum wage regulations, Latief
said: "It is impossible at the present because our workforce is
over-supplied and its quality is relatively low."

About 76 percent of the workforce of around 84 million
consists of people who have only elementary school educations, or
who have dropped out of secondary school.

Yesterday, the All Indonesia Workers Union urged the
government to strictly monitor the implementation of the plan to
increase the regional minimum wages nationwide.

Union deputy chairman Marzuki Achmad said the supervision was
needed to see to it that companies abide by the government
regulations.

Marzuki said that the union, the only one that the government
recognizes, should be involved in the supervision.

"The pay hike is mandatory and any company that violates the
regulation should be brought to trial," he told Antara news
agency. (rms)