Daily wage system must go, says Latief

JAKARTA (JP): The government promised yesterday to take a hard line on companies who pay workers by day for an unlimited period, and keep workers in a limbo of unclear employment status.

Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief said yesterday the government could no longer tolerate employers who pay their workers by day as a matter of course.

"Workers in many companies have been getting paid by day for 15 to 20 years. This must not keep happening. We must remedy this situation," he told journalists after meeting President Soeharto.

Latief acknowledged the practice is so common that employees have a specific expression for these workers.

In future, the minister said, workers should be given a standard three-month probation period before the employer decides whether he will give them a permanent job or contract them for a certain period.

Latief said many employees are paid for only six days a week although a 1951 labor law requires workers to be given one day off every week on seven days worth of pay.

"Even during the Dutch colonial period, workers got a paid day off. So we want to correct this situation," Latief said.

President Soeharto was quoted by Latief as also admitting that many employers trample workers' rights. The President means to change current labor practices, he said.

Latief also gave account on the implementation of the new minimum regional wage standards in the provinces that took effect on the first of this month.

He disclosed that so far 160 companies have asked for a postponement of the wage hike, claiming not to have the money to implement the government's policy.

The government has accepted four firms' requests for pay hike postponements and rejected one. The rest are yet to provide more data to support their requests.

In a separate move, deputy chief of the official Federation of Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI) Wilhelmus Boka, hailed the government's initiative to tighten up the wage system.

He proposed that the minimum wage level system be applied to monthly, not daily, wages and that workers should be entitled to keep their wages for their days-off.

The Association of Indonesian Businesses (APINDO) has voiced their objection to paying workers minimum wages on a monthly basis on the grounds that this would pose an additional financial burden.

APINDO officials have warned that this month's 10.6 percent raise in minimum wage levels would jack up production costs so high that it may deter foreign investors.

Boka said APINDO's worries about a negative impact of the minimum wage policy are unfounded, Antara reported.

Foreign interest in East Java, West Java and Jakarta as well as the other provinces remains high, he argued. (pan)