Employers told to treat workers better

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja urged city employers yesterday to treat their workers better by providing safer facilities and creating a more democratic environment in the workplace.

Quoting the findings of a city administration and University of Indonesia's joint research project, City Workers' Problems, Surjadi said there were six factors that could lead to conflicts between employers and workers.

"They are: the minimum wage, workers' demands for an increase, overtime fees, doing overtime, incompatible worker-employer relationships and the lack of freedom to pursue their career or education," he said.

If employers could pay extra attention to these six factors, strikes or worker-employer conflicts could be sharply reduced, Surjadi told a seminar on manpower here.

"In the past six years there have been 441 strikes recorded in the city," he said.

Strikes can have a serious economic and political impact, which, in turn, can disturb national stability because the workers become their employers' opponent.

"That is why the government always gives serious attention to the manpower issue.

"The administration plays an important political role by managing the workers' organization and intervening in conflicts."

The industrial relations between employers and workers is a very sensitive matter that potentially could create social unrest, he said.

"That is why, the employer must start to listen to the workers' needs instead of just exploiting them."

Once an open channel of communication has been established, the government, the employers and the workers can build a better understanding, he said.

"Employers can convey their aspirations through related bodies, such as the local chamber of commerce, and the workers through their labor unions," he said. "And the government -- through bureaucracy -- can help consolidate all the disputes."

The head of the city's Manpower Agency, R.D. Sudhartin, said that Jakarta has managed to hold welfare training for employers from 500 big companies here.

"There are currently 24,000 corporations in Jakarta. We can't possibly train all of their employers at once but step by step we can," Sudhartin said.

Governor Surjadi has previously expressed his concerns regarding workers' lack of skills and knowledge.

"For instance, construction workers are unaware of the risks of their work. They usually do not wear any safety belts or helmets and they are often involved in fatal accidents," he said.

Surjadi once said that Indonesians had a tendency not to respect their life and cases of dead workers had become commonplace.

"That is why employers must improve their workers' habits to ensure they obey safety rules," he said.

But it has to work both ways.

"If the employers just want to make bigger profits without thinking about their workers then there will always be strikes," he said. (07)