Labor protest hits Batam amid election campaign

Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam, Riau

Around 1,600 workers of PT Foster Electric Indonesia staged a protest on the industrial island of Batam, Riau province, on Thursday to demand the increase of their salaries.

Amid the three-week campaign period for the legislative election on April 5, involving 24 political parties, the protest was the biggest to hit the island this year.

The striking workers commenced their protest at around 8 a.m., demanding that the management raise their salaries and allowances.

The workers said they were paid only Rp 500,000 (US$58.8) a month, while the Batam authorities had set the city's minimum wage at Rp 602,000 per month.

The protesters also demanded that the sound-system company pay them transportation, food and housing allowances as recommended by Manpower Law No. 13/2003.

They said the management should provide female workers with two days leave for menstruation or Rp 25,000 a day for those who did not take the leave.

Protester Hendra Giri said the demands had been put to the company last February but the workers had not received a satisfactory response.

The current salaries, Hendra explained, were not sufficient to cover the workers' daily expenses, including rent and transportation fees. He said that most workers had to borrow money to pay for their basic needs.

"We know that our company has received many orders. This is proven by the fact that we have to work overtime for up to 50 hours per month," Hendra said.

He said the protesters would continue striking until their demands were heeded by the management.

During the protest, inside the factory compound many workers were observed singing. Others sat about idly, although they had clocked in.

The company's human resources manager, Erwan Effendi, said PT Foster could not afford to pay the workers more due to its financial problems.

The decision was made during a meeting between the management and representatives of the workers at the Batam manpower office in mid-February, he said.

"We conveyed the result of the meeting to the workers: that the company is not yet able to meet their demands. We will try to convince them to stop striking," Erwan added.

Batam manpower office head Pirma Marpaung admitted he was surprised by the scale of the protest considering that the government was trying to resolve the problem amicably.

"We will continue to approach them, so that they will agree to overcome this problem in the proper manner," he added.