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