Labor rallies

Labor rallies

From Media Indonesia

On May Day this year, many labor unions in Indonesia took to the streets to object to the recently ratified law on manpower.

Signed by President Megawati Soekarnoputri on April 25, 2003, this law is believed to be harmful to workers' interests, particularly in its clause on the authority of a company to lay off workers deemed unproductive. Besides, the law is said to fail to arrange social insurance for laid-off workers. The protest that the workers lodged was quite normative and therefore understandable.

In the Parliament Watch program on Metro TV on May Day, Surya Chandra, a legislator, and Jacob Nuwa Wea, the manpower minister, said that a company could not freely resort to outsourcing and that the articles in the law on manpower on outsourcing actually concerned the outsourcing of professionals. They said that some articles in this law protected workers' interests. They also added that the House was deliberating over workers' protection and social insurance. Obviously, workers with good performance should not worry about their jobs, and workers in general must know that labor problems are still being addressed at the House and that any mistakes in this sector can always be corrected.

One thing to note, is that workers' rallies have been held for quite a long time and that every single time, these rallies seem to show an unfavorable reaction towards the government's policies regarding the welfare of workers. One may suspect there are ulterior political motives behind these rallies and that the workers have been manipulated as a political force. The workers taking part in these rallies frequently do not realize that they are lashing out at things that actually benefit them.

SUHARTO Depok, West Java