Govt to raid firms exploiting child workers
Govt to raid firms exploiting child workers
JAKARTA (JP): The government will crack down on companies,
including those in Jakarta and its surrounding areas, which
exploit child workers, Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris said
yesterday.
"We will impose stiff sanctions, as stipulated under the new
labor law, on employers found guilty of labor exploitation,"
Fahmi said in a meeting with about 200 child workers from Greater
Jakarta here yesterday.
The meeting was organized by the Indonesian Committee for
Creative Education of Child Labor Foundation (Kompak) in
celebrating International Children's Day, which fell yesterday.
The minister, who received reports on the exploitation of
child workers during the meeting, said the new labor law, to be
enacted Oct. 1, barred companies from employing child workers,
except those who are voluntarily employed because of financial
need.
"Employers should realize that child workers, who should spend
their time going school and playing games at home, are employed
at their firms because of financial problems."
Based on the law, firm owners found guilty of exploiting
children could face two-year imprisonment or a maximum fine of Rp
200 million (US$14,180).
He acknowledged that many parents could not send their
children to school, especially in today's economic climate, and
that the only alternative was to send them to work to help the
family earn a living.
He called on child workers to set up their own organization or
join trade unions in their companies to prevent exploitation by
their employers.
Ernawati (not her real name), a 13-year-old female worker at
paper bag manufacturer PT Samsung Piet and Pack Indonesia in
Cicadas, Bogor, said the management employed about 200 school-age
children for a seven-hour workday, instead of the four hours
allowed by law.
"We are also forced to work every Monday from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
without a break. We are paid only Rp 172,500 monthly in
accordance with the monthly minimum wage in Greater Jakarta," she
said.
Wiwiek (not her real name), 12, said she and 200 other child
workers worked seven hours a day for only Rp 20,000 per week at
unleavened cracker factory PT Yudiwangi in Tangerang.
She said she dropped out of junior high school last December
after her father was dismissed from his job because of the
prolonged crisis.
According to Ministry of Manpower Decree No. 1, issued in
1987, child workers who work voluntarily out of necessity should
be employed not more than four hours a day.
Hasyim (also not his real name), 14, of plastic factory PT
Multi Astamas in Tangerang, said that all child workers in the
company were forced to work an average of seven hours a day.
He said a number of child workers in the company had been
fired without severance pay.
He added that child workers were forced to work in shifts and
at night for two weeks per month.
Bagio (not his real name), 14, who works at food company PT
Sinar Mutiara in Bantar Gebang, East Jakarta, reported to the
minister that many child workers in the company had been
threatened with dismissal for demanding a raise in their daily
wage.
"I am paid only Rp 5,000 a day," he said.
Kompak director Ariest Merdeka Sirait called on the government
to make a new law to provide legal protection for child workers.
"Legal protection for child workers has not been fully covered
in the law," he said, citing that his organization would lodge a
draft law on legal protection for child workers to the House of
Representatives in the near future. (rms)