Jakarta sticks to five-day workweek
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)