... but whose interests does it really serve?

... but whose interests does it really serve?

JAKARTA (JP): Labor activists aren't all that impressed by the performance of the Central Committee for the Settlement of Labor Disputes (P4P) in defending the rights of workers.

Arist Merdeka Sirait of the Social Information and Legal Guidance Foundation says turning to the committee for help is a waste of time and money because many of its decisions favor employers.

"The committee has frequently made unfair decisions. This shows that the government officials tend to side with the management," Arist said of the committee that consists of representatives of employers, workers union and the government.

"I fear the employers and government officials are in collusion," he said.

The P4P is also slow, Arist said, underlining that he had clients whose cases took years to settle at the committee.

Arist is no stranger to the committee's work and rulings.

Last year, he represented workers in 137 disputes brought to the committee. He lost in 85 cases. In 14 of the 28 cases he won, the employers have simply ignored the committee's rulings.

Out of frustration, last week Arist tried to circumvent the committee and took his case directly to the Ministry of Manpower.

He organized 50 workers representing about 10,000 of their colleagues in 14 factories in Jakarta and surrounding towns who have been dismissed.

The dismissals, he said, did not have the approval of the P4P.

William Bokha of the All Indonesian Workers Union said the time has come to change the legal basis of the committee to make it more independent.

He would like the committee to have more of a bite to ensure compliance with its rulings, because many employers have simply ignored the decisions and went unpunished.

Most workers could not afford to raise the money to seek a court order to execute the rulings, Bokha said.

The Association of Indonesian Employers is not complaining too much about P4P's performance.

The Association's executive director Hadi Topobroto said the problem lies with employers and labor unions for their failure to resolve the problem internally.

The majority of labor disputes could be solved without a third party mediating if both sides truly understood the labor laws, said Hadi, who also seats on the P4P committee. (rms)