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.