... 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)