Jacob concedes tough fight in defending workers' rights
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.