Jacob concedes tough fight in defending workers' rights

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea admitted on Saturday that his office was losing ground in its efforts to defend workers' rights.

Jacob said that many companies continued to deny workers their rights, such as decent salaries, vacations and the right to form unions, and the government could do little to help the workers.

"Practically, the establishment of workers' unions as mandated by Law No. 21/2000 remains elusive," he told The Jakarta Post. after meeting with workers' activists in Medan.

Labor conflicts arising from employers' hostility toward unions stemmed from the ministry's failure to oversee enforcement of the law, he conceded. "Many officials of the ministry collude with employers to thwart workers' efforts to set up labor unions."

Jacob, who is also chairman of the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Unions (FSPSI), acknowledged he needed more time to put his house in order.

Jacob has been in office for 50 days.

"It's very difficult to eradicate the corruption, collusion and nepotism that are rampant at the ministry. The official- businesses collusion has been done in a sophisticated way," he said.

Jacob promised to make public all the corruption cases at the ministry on his 100th day in office and said all recalcitrant officials would get their due punishment.

When addressing the meeting with labor activists, Jacob said the regional autonomy policy, which has been in effect for almost a year, had hampered coordination between offices in Jakarta and those in the regencies.

"The ministry's officials in the regencies are no longer answerable to me but to the mayor or regent. Unfortunately, the local bureaucrats do not really understand labor affairs," he said.

In North Sulawesi, for example, the chief of the local manpower office is a former family planning official.

"Appointment of unqualified officials will only aggravate corruption because they don't know their job," he said.