Jakarta sticks to five-day workweek

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta administration will not follow Lampung province in returning to a six-day workweek because the current five-day workweek has been running pretty well, Governor Sutiyoso said yesterday.

"This is the capital. It's different from other provinces. We're not only serving the local population, but also international parties," he told The Jakarta Post.

"I don't think it will serve the purpose if we have to work on Saturdays (again) because international parties and many locals are off on Saturdays," he said after giving instructions on the implementation of the spirit of reform to Central Jakarta city officials at the local mayoralty office.

Sutiyoso was commenting on a plan initiated by Lampung Governor Oemarsono on Tuesday which would restore the provincial workdays for administration officials and all state employees from five to six per week beginning next Wednesday.

Oemarsono was quoted by Antara as saying on Wednesday that the back-to-six-day workweek plan was meant to improve the effectiveness of the Lampung administration's services to the public.

Following other provinces, city administration officials and other government employees in Lampung first experienced the five- day workweek three years ago.

"We're going back to a six-day week starting from July 1," Oemarsono said.

The old scheme, he said, caused ineffectiveness in the provision of public services to the people.

"In European countries, employees work until 5 p.m. but the climate is favorable, here in Indonesia the employees are already sweating after 1 p.m.," he said.

With the new change to be adopted next week, employees in the province of Sumatra will go home at 2:30 p.m., or half an hour earlier than previously. On Friday, they will leave the office at 11 a.m., instead of 3 p.m. On Saturday, employees will have to be at the office from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

According to Sutiyoso, his officials have been able to optimize the five-day workweek, which has been effective since 1995, in their respective jobs.

"In my opinion, the five-day workweek has worked well. The five-day workweek is a 40-hour week, which is no different in total number of working hours than the six-day workweek," he said.

Jakarta administration officials now work Mondays to Thursdays from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Fridays from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. They get a one hour break from 12 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day.

Although he found no significant need to resume the old workweek system, Sutiyoso admitted that his approximately 70,000 administration personnel still need to improve their service to the public.

"There are a lot of things to be changed here if we really want to improve our performance."

"I've told all my personnel that I will no longer tolerate any malfeasance. There should be no more unpunctual service, illegal levies, conspiracy in project bids, and so on.

There will be no more mercy for officials who misbehave," he vowed.

The five-day workweek was formalized for the Central Government Administration and Jakarta City Administration in October 1995 through the 1995 Presidential Decree Number 68 and was aimed at improving civil servants' productivity and their service to the public.

Sutiyoso's decision not to change the workweek was hailed by city councilor Saud Rahman from the United Development Party (PPP).

He said the workweek scheme would be better kept at five days.

"People need time to rest. Officials need weekends to foster their family lives."

He also agreed that the city officials have to further enhance their services.

"We all know that the administration and its officials' services are still poor."

Fellow councilor Lukman F. Mokoginta from the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) suggested giving more free hours or days to employees so they could earn extra money to support their families during the current crisis.

"What if the workweek was cut temporarily to four days?

"Or keep it at five days but cut the hours. Perhaps they can use Thursday to Saturday for moonlighting," he said.

Nowadays, he said, there are too many city employees for the work they should do.

"You can see for yourself, some officials just hang around chatting, playing cards or singing karaoke," Lukman said. (cst)