Firms told to adobt democratic practices

Firms told to adobt democratic practices

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has called on businesspeople and labor unions to
adopt democratic practices and build pro-labor industrial
relations to improve their position on the global market.

"In doing business, employers and managers need to upgrade
workers' social welfare, skills and competence, which would in
turn improve labor conditions and workers' productivity. On the
other hand, labor unions and workers should boost their
performance to help their companies grow and enable them to pay
them more," Director General for Industrial relations at the
Manpower and Transmigration Ministry Muzni Tambusai said here on
Wednesday.

He was speaking at the signing of the 16th collective labor
agreement between PT Unilever Indonesia and its workers.

The harmonious and equal partnership between the management
and the workers was the company's strong point, helping it
achieve major improvements over the last three decades, and deal
with numerous problems resulting from the economic crisis,
political instability and security problems in the last five
years.

Muzni pointed out that without pay rises and training to
advance their skills, workers would be more likely to go on
strike.

Many companies have closed down over the last few years, not
because of the prolonged economic crisis and security
disturbances, but mainly due to unprofessional management, he
said.

"Many other companies have achieved robust growth after giving
top priority to the development of their human resources and
forging a collective labor agreement through a democratic and
transparent process. Under such a condition, workers will not go
on strike to demand their normative rights if they know their
employers are unable to comply with the labor law," he said.

Muzni called on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to learn
from Unilever, which he said had been successful in developing
peaceful industrial relations for 32 years, so that it had grown
to be a big publicly-listed company producing consumer goods for
the domestic market and export.

Unilever's human resources director Josef Bataona, said his
company strength lay in its commitment to maintaining qualified
and prosperous human resources.

"With the collective labor agreement, the management is
committed to raising the workers' social welfare, including
wages, housing and medical allowances, by 11.35 percent or Rp
12.8 billion (US$1.3 million) in a couple of years," he said
citing that workers' social welfare, labor training and
promotion/appreciation were three key factors to improve workers'
loyalty and their productivity.

He added that the company had provided training programs for
workers, not just to improve their skills, but also to promote
them to higher positions so that regeneration in the company had
continued in a smooth manner.

He said that the lowest ranking workers in the company had
been paid higher than the regional minimum wage, and that the
wage gap in the company was relatively very small.

Former manpower and transmigration minister Jacob Nuwa Wea
called for the management of Unilever to give a small portion of
the company's stakes to their workers, to maintain their loyalty
and help improve their productivity.