Govt employees on substandard wages

Govt employees on substandard wages

Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon

Some 10,000 contract civil servants here are paid below the
regional minimum wage, making their situation no better than that
of an unskilled laborer, an activist says.

Besides the low salary, the contract workers are not protected
against unfair dismissal, activist Yoyon Suharyono said on
Monday.

The salary of a contract civil servant in Cirebon regency is
Rp 470,000 a month, whereas in Cirebon city they are paid
Rp 5,000 more.

"Contract civil servants receive a monthly salary of between
Rp 300,000 and Rp 450,000 with no other incentives," said
Yoyon, who works for the Worker and Environment Foundation.

The regency employs some 6,000 contract civil servants, while
the remaining over 4,000 civil servants are hired by the
neighboring municipal administration.

Al Arief, a contract worker with the regental administration's
sanitation division, said he was paid Rp 450,000 a month
in spite of his five years as a government employee.

The salary does not cover his family's expenses of between Rp
800,000 and Rp 1 million a month. Arif, who has one child,
moonlights as an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver
and sells secondhand goods with his brother to survive.

Pungki, another contract civil servant, has
a side job as a contractor.

While much is expected of these underpaid workers, Yoyon said
their rights had been denied by the government. The contract
civil servants are not registered with state insurance company
Jamsostek.

"The government has no good will to improve the welfare of
contract civil servants. Without being a member of Jamsostek, the
contract civil servants will find their bargaining position is
low before their employer, the government," said Adjat Sudradjat,
the head of Jamsostek's Cirebon office.

Adjat said he had approached the two administrations asking
them to register their employees as Jamsostek members, but had so
far been given the cold shoulder.