Government urged to make radical change in labor policy
Government urged to make radical change in labor policy
JAKARTA (JP): A senior official of the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Unions called yesterday for radical change in the labor policy to strengthen workers' bargaining power.
Union deputy chief Wilhelmus Bokha told a seminar the government should stop its habitual interference in the labor organization's internal affairs.
It will also have to stop collusion between its officials and entrepreneurs, bury its feudalistic attitude and review its capitalist economic system, he said.
"Workers can use their massive power to undermine the 1997 general election unless the government improves their welfare," he warned.
The Indonesian government plans to raise minimum daily wages by an average of 10.6 percent across the country next month.
The minimum daily wage in Jakarta and its surrounding areas, for instance, will be raised from the current Rp 4,600 (US$1.9) to Rp 5,200 ($2.2). In North Sumatra, the level will be increased from Rp 4.200 to Rp 4,600 and in East Java from Rp 3,700 to Rp 4,000.
Bokha said the planned increase in the daily wage levels won't be adequate for workers to make the ends meet.
The meager minimum wages are simply a logical consequence of a capitalist economic system combined with feudalistic political practices, he argued. This, he said, encourages collusion, monopoly, oligopoly and corruption.
He challenged the government's recent claim that at the current wage levels, workers are able to meet "108 percent" of their minimum physical needs, meaning food, housing, recreation and education.
"It is impossible for workers to eat enough, afford modest houses and enjoy recreation at the same time; their wages are too low," he said.
He said he does not agree that Indonesian workers deserve such small wages because the quality of their work is poor and their productivity low.
"The Malaysian government has publicly acknowledged that the productivity of Indonesians working in its plantations is higher than that of local workers'," he said.
"That's why Indonesians are paid more than Bangladeshis, Vietnamese and Filipinos working in the same sectors."
He also pointed out that Indonesian minimum wages are the lowest among ASEAN countries although their productivity is higher than that of Malaysian and Thai workers.
Hourly pay in Indonesia is $0.25, Malaysia $1.80, the Philippines $0.68, Thailand $0.71, China $0.58 and Vietnam $0.73, he said.
It was Bennett Silalahi, a senior researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), who said that Indonesian workers' wage levels are low because their productivity is also low.
"All employers will try to keep their production costs as low as possible to rake in as much profit as possible. Of all production costs, it is the labor cost which can most easily be kept low," he said.
Sjahrir, an economist from the University of Indonesia, said in the seminar that the low minimum wage level is caused by the surplus of workers in the market.
"No employer worries about running short of workers. If one worker quits his job, ten or more others will queue up to replace him," he said. (rms)