Council tells governor to revise minimum wage

The City Council sent a letter to Governor Sutiyoso on Tuesday, demanding that he revise the decree on the minimum wage for Jakarta.

City Council Commission E on education, health, and people's welfare chairman Dani Anwar said that the council requested the governor to increase the minimum wage of Rp 711,843 (US$79), which had already been set in the decree, to Rp 759,532 as demanded by the workers' association.

The latter figure is the estimated minimum cost of living in Jakarta, based on a joint survey conducted in July by the city administration, workers associations and employers associations.

"All parties, particularly the employers associations, must respect the result of the survey," Dani said.

He emphasized that workers would face difficulties next year if the employers did not take into account the additional expenses, triggered by the planned 40 percent increase in fuel prices.

The fuel price hike will eventually lead to an increase in the prices of staple foodstuffs and transportation.

The letter was sent a day after nearly 1,000 workers staged a protest in front of the City Council and City Hall in Central Jakarta.

During the meeting with Commission E, the workers association representatives demanded that the governor revise the gubernatorial decree on the minimum wage. They also demanded that the commission facilitate a meeting with Sutiyoso.

They threatened to deploy a larger number of workers if their demands were ignored.

However, Dani could not guarantee that the governor would revoke his decree after receiving the letter.

A number of workers said that the gubernatorial decree was against existing regulations because Law No. 13/2003 on manpower stipulates that every citizen is entitled to a proper livelihood. -- JP