Int'l labor body blasts Apindo's stand on wages

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation lambasted Indonesian manufacturers on Friday for refusing to implement the new minimum wage policy.

"International consumers no longer want to buy products produced by exploited laborers. So if you succeed in keeping wages at poverty levels, you risk losing your best markets in the U.S. and Europe because industrialized world retailers can no longer be seen to be sourcing from dirty sources," federation general secretary Neil Kearney was quoted by AFP as saying in a statement.

Kearney also said that even before the increase, many Indonesian companies were already paying their workers below the minimum wage, further damaging the reputation of Indonesian manufacturers.

The government has raised minimum wages across the country by different amounts this year. The Jakarta administrations through a gubernatorial decree raised the minimum wage for the Jakarta area to Rp 591,262 (about US$60) per month from Rp 421,000 last year.

But the Employers' Association of Indonesia (Apindo) filed a lawsuit with the State Administrative Court in Jakarta to protest against the new minimum wage in Jakarta.

Meanwhile, Apindo's vice president Djimanto told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the federation should not view the wage problem in a biased manner.

"The federation should also see it from the perspective of the companies' economic capabilities," he said.

Djimanto added that employers were not allergic to wage hikes but they were also responsible for the survival of their companies so that they could provide jobs. "We do not want to create unemployment and massive layoffs," he said.