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)