Govt bows to pressure, revises two labor bills
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Bowing to strong demands from both workers and the business community, the government has finally agreed to revise crucial bills on labor protection and settlement of industrial relations disputes.
Minister for Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said here on Wednesday that the government would revise some chapters in the bills that have met strong opposition from various groups, including the chapters on workers' right to go on strike, labor dismissal, contract workers and protection for female workers.
"All in all we will revise 35 chapters of the two bills," Jacob said after a meeting with trade union leaders and non- governmental organizations.
Jacob said the revisions would be made after receiving inputs from various groups including trade unions, non-governmental organizations and the business community.
The government plans to meet with members of the House of Representatives (DPR) on Sept. 4, 2002 to discuss revisions to the two bills, he said.
The House deferred endorsement of the bills after both laborers and the business community expressed strong opposition to the bills.
Workers have, in the past few weeks, stepped up their protests demanding that the House stop deliberating the two bills on the grounds that they provided little protection to laborers.
A particularly violent protest, which saw two workers shot by police, occurred in Bandung earlier this week over the same issue.
The business community criticized the bills as "overly protective" and a deterrent to investors. They warned that if the bills were passed, it would further deteriorate the country's business climate.
Jacob admitted that the two bills had been rejected by both the business community and workers.
"For workers the bills do not provide adequate protection, while the business community consider the bills to be too burdensome," said Jacob, adding that the government, together with DPR members, would try to accommodate the needs of both sides.
"We will determine which chapters have to be revised to give maximum protection to workers and which chapters can be tolerated by the business community," the minister said.
According to Jacob, the right for women to take a holiday during their monthly period would be reintroduced in the bills.
"For the right to go on strike, its mechanisms and procedures will be regulated so that businesses will still have to pay the salary of the striking workers for as long as the strike lasts," he said without elaborating.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) also expressed opposition to the two bills on Wednesday, arguing that they were against human rights principles.
It particularly pointed to an article in the labor protection bill that said that the state was not responsible for providing job opportunities to its citizens, leaving the task of creating jobs to market mechanisms entirely.
The article, according to YLBHI's interpretation, ran contrary to a United Nations covenant on economic, social and cultural rights (the ECOSOC Rights Covenant), which stipulates that, among other things, the state shall recognize its citizens' rights to work, including the right to choose a job.
"As the number of unemployed people continues to rise while job opportunities continue to shrink, leaders of the country have to ensure the availability of jobs as stipulated in the ECOSOC covenant," the group claimed in a press statement received by The Jakarta Post Wednesday.
The foundation also criticized chapters on contract workers in the labor protection bill.
"Contract work has proven that it creates more unemployed people and increases unilateral dismissals as such an arrangement does not provide protection and employment guarantees for workers," it said.