City reviews decree on labor welfare
City reviews decree on labor welfare
JAKARTA (JP): The city administration is reviewing the seven-
year-old decree on workers' welfare, deeming it now ineffective.
The head of social welfare department of the city manpower
agency, Suwardja, said on Thursday that decree No. 7/1989 is
insubstantial, therefore review is necessary to make it powerful.
"The review includes the modification of the penalty which is
the weakest point of the decree," he said.
He said many companies have failed to abide by the decree
because the penalty for fail to comply is feeble.
The decree says that an employer is obliged to improve
workers' welfare by providing them with facilities and
allowances. "A violator will get three months imprisonment or a
Rp 50,000 (US$23.25) fine," the decree says.
Under the decree, a company should provide its workers with
medical services, religious centers, uniforms, cafeterias, sports
centers, recreation, transportation, housing, dormitories, rest
rooms, meeting rooms, child care centers, insurance,
cooperatives, and basic education for them and their children.
The city council's Commission E for public welfare said
recently that none of the 34,000 companies operating in Jakarta
have implemented the regulation. The commission also blamed the
manpower agency for not intensively publicizing it and for the
light punishment for violators.
Suwardja said his office has promoted the decree among
companies. "Since the decree is relatively new and the fact that
the punishment is too light, many companies just ignore it," he
said.
Suwardja said the punishment will be made stiffer but he
refused say just how long a sentence or amount of fines violators
could expect. "I think it's too early to name it," he said.
The announcement on violations of workers' welfare was made
after the commission's impromptu visits to several companies,
some of which included uniforms and transport allowances in their
workers' wages.
Any allowances must be added to the daily wages, which have
just been raised from Rp 4,600 to Rp 5,250 for Jakarta.
Some companies are, however, still defiant and consider the
transport allowance to be included in the workers' daily wage
level.
PT Wonderful, a dying and weaving company, in East Jakarta can
be cited as example. The commission visited the company on
Thursday and found that its workers' daily wages of Rp 5,200
included transport allowances.
Katmiati, a worker who has been working for the company for 14
years, said she is paid Rp 5,250 per day without a transportation
allowance. The company does not provide transportation.
The administration is also reviewing a loophole riddled decree
which stipulates developers must build low-cost apartments. (yns)