House proposes government permit for worker strikes

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Legislators are drafting new changes to the long running debate on the labor bill, proposing, among other items, a government permit for worker strikes and a ban to outsource workers under temporary contracts.

The proposed changes are to be debated by the Cabinet on Sept. 4, when the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration proposes its own revised bill, said Surya Chandra Surapaty of the Golkar faction on Thursday.

"We counted some 40 of these controversial articles," said Chandra, who is a member of House Commission VII in charge of labor affairs.

The House planned to finalize talks during this current session ending Sept. 27, said Chandra, adding "we must get it done."

Legislators and the government have extended the deadline numerous times as neither was able to satisfy workers and companies alike.

Stirring heated debate is the workers' right to go on strike, which, over the past few years, has become the favored method of airing grievances, yet has badly damaged local and foreign businesses.

The question centers on whether companies must continue paying the salaries of workers on strike as required by the latest draft law.

Based on the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO), it is the labor union that must pay the salaries of workers on strike, said another member of Commission VII, Rekso Ageng Herman of the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI Perjuangan). "But the problem is that labor unions here don't have the money to pay workers' salaries."

The commission proposed that workers wishing to go on strike must acquire a permit from the Ministry of Manpower, labor dispute settlement bodies, and the companies they work for.

"The workers must give a strong reason why they want a strike and state how long it would last," said Chandra, adding that the management had to pay salaries of workers on government- sanctioned strikes.

The House also is seeking to ban companies from outsourcing workers and limiting the practice to only non-core businesses of a company.

Thus a company that makes shoes cannot hire workers from another company but may do so on products not related with its core business of producing shoes, explained Chandra.

Labor unions have long decried companies subcontracting work to allow the hiring of temporary workers who have fewer rights and are paid less.

They also lambasted the legally accepted practice of keeping workers on temporary contract for an extended period of time.

This, they said, allowed companies to keep salaries low and dismiss them faster without proper compensation and regardless of how long they had worked for them.

Workers in the oil and gas industry are often subject to these conditions, which for this industry, however is not regulated in the labor bill but in a separate ministerial decree.

Now, Herman said, legislators would propose that contracts on temporary workers should be limited to temporary jobs as well.

"Say, for those who work at a kiosk during the Jakarta Fair," he said referring to the annual event in conjunction with Jakarta's anniversary on June 22 and lasts about one month.

Legislators outlined the proposed changes in a table which will be discussed with the government next week, Chandra said.

A new labor law that is even faintly acceptable to both workers and companies would go a long way to improving the country's investment climate.

The absence of new investment is a barrier to generating jobs here, where unemployment in the labor force amounts to some 8 million people.