Employees still complain of unfair treatment

Employees still complain of unfair treatment

Emmy Fitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

What do workers do when they get together? They share stories
about their daily workload and how their companies treat them.
And, more often than not, they are telling the same story: that
they are subject to unfair treatment and need improved
conditions.

"I've been working for more than 10 years and I'm still paid
Rp 380,000 per month, while a friend of mine working in another
company already gets Rp 500,000. Is it fair?" asked Taufik during
the two-day congress of the Greater Jakarta Workers Union (SBJ),
which was opened on Monday in Cibubur, East Jakarta.

"When I asked my boss, he just said that I was lucky to still
be paid and if I didn't like it I could leave at any time,"
Taufik, who works for a garment factory in Bogor, said.

The current minimum regional salary for Jakarta is Rp 426,250
(US$43) per month.

Another worker, Rini Supiati from Cimanggu, Bogor, said she
could not accept her company's policy of conducting physical
examinations of women requesting menstruation leave.

"Isn't it against human rights? There is a regulation that
allows female workers to take leave when that have their monthly
period," she said.

Speaking at the meeting was former labor activist Teten
Masduki, who is now active in Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW),
and Poengky Indarti, head of the labor division at the Indonesian
Legal Aid Foundation.

Both Teten and Poengky agreed that labor unions should play a
role in solving the problems. The fact remains, however, that
unions are still powerless when dealing with employers.

According to Poengky, after the downfall of former president
Soeharto, workers were free to establish unions. Since October
1999, she has recorded at least 58 unions representing factory
workers.

According to Teten's records, however, the number has reached
102, which includes unions for employees of state-owned
companies.

Most of the time, the newly established unions have failed to
respond to the employees' needs because they are still learning
how to organize and compete with other workers' unions in
recruiting members.

Poengky even suspects that the government relaxed the
requirements for the establishment of labor unions intentionally
in order to prevent them from establishing strong influence.

The government-affiliated All-Indonesian Workers Union (SPSI)
even moved fast to expand, establishing federations throughout
the country.

"Worker unions failed to seize the moment so that now they are
still busy organizing and competing with one another to recruit
members," Poengky said.

Poengky was also concerned that some union leaders had
admitted that their goals were to create "harmonious ties with
the government, capital owners and the workers".

"It seems that they still believe that the focus of the labor
movement is in the hands of the government and the capital
owners. Workers should be empowered to achieve bargaining power
that is equal with government's and capital owners'," Poengky
stressed.

Teten even said that in industrial areas like Jakarta and
Tangerang, workers were "guided" by groups like the Jakarta
Workers Union and the National Front for Indonesian Workers
(FNBI), which was associated with the Democratic People's Party
(PRD).

Unlike the manufacturer workers, Teten added, the workers at
the state-owned companies were more independent in their unions,
meaning that the establishment, programs and other missions were
decided by themselves and they did not depend on other parties,
such as non-governmental organizations.