Govt firm on no pay for striking workers

JAKARTA (JP): Striking workers will not be paid, the government said yesterday, referring to the "no work no pay" principle stipulated in an International Labor Organization convention.

"If they are paid, then they'll enjoy striking and the dispute (that caused) the strike will drag on and eventually harm the workers themselves," Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief told a House of Representatives' plenary session on the manpower bill.

The session had been arranged for Latief to respond to queries and objections which House members had raised in an earlier session.

"We are encouraging solution through deliberation for every labor dispute," he said. "No one wants to see workers go on strike. Here we need to be honest."

"If workers continue to strike, then the labor organizations which told them to strike will have to pay them to strike. This is what happens in other countries," he said.

Legislators had questioned the bill's stipulation on workers' right to strike.

Latief said the Ministry of Manpower had accommodated several suggestions to improve the bill which had been put forward by the three parties and the Armed Forces' faction in the House.

He said repeatedly, "If they (objections to the bill) are considered substantial, we will discuss them in further meetings."

Yesterday's session was chaired by Deputy House Speaker Ismail Hasan Metareum from the United Development Party (PPP). The other parties are Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

The bill's first reading was on June 16.

After the bill was submitted to the House earlier this year, activists and others groups criticized it for stifling workers' rights. They said it sought to regulate strikes by stipulating that authorities must be notified at least three days before industrial action, and by other means.

The bill also seeks to allow lockouts by revoking the 1963 Law No. 7 on the prohibition of strikes and lockouts in companies and strategic bodies. Comprising 18 chapters and 159 articles, the bill has been drafted as an umbrella law for the 14 labor regulations made between 1887, during the Dutch colonial administration, and 1969.

The bill covers labor policies, such as planning, information, placements and manpower development and relations between workers employers and government. It affects all workers, including migrants and those working for informal businesses or nonprofit organizations.

Latief said there was a need to differentiate between "strikes" and "demonstrations".

"Demonstrations by workers marching to state agencies, legal aid offices, the National Commission on Human Rights, the House of Representatives and others places are not regulated in the bill, because they are covered in the law on public order," Latief said.

He insisted that the government had always defended workers who had gone on strike for their "normative rights" such as overtime allowances, insurance and leave.

"But in reality many strikes had not occurred because workers' normative rights had not been met," he said. "Let's all work to find a suitable formulation in order to guarantee justice for all."

Representatives of several non-governmental organizations met Golkar legislators yesterday to ask the House to drop the manpower bill.

The 14 NGOs in the Commission of Labor Law and the Group of Women for Justice for Labor were led by labor activist Teten Masduki. He said the bill did not seek to improve workers' welfare.

In a 21-page statement, the activists cited 14 shortcomings of the bill, including the "assumption that workers are a dangerous group that pose potential threats to economic development and national stability".

Golkar legislator Achmad Marzuki said his party agreed with the activists and would use their criticism in its search for alternatives. (05/swe)