Latief plans to blacklist firms
Latief plans to blacklist firms
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief announced yesterday his intention to blacklist companies who are insensitive or who continue to violate or ignore labor laws.
President Soeharto agreed with the plan, Latief told reporters after meeting with the head of state at Bina Graha presidential office yesterday.
Among those to be blacklisted are companies that fail to pay their workers the minimum wage, those that do not pay workers the 13th month's salary entitlement, and those that deny workers their legal rights.
The President, according to Latief, felt that many labor conflicts that had political implications occurred because of failure of the companies' managements to comply with labor laws.
He did not specify the purpose of the blacklist other than to say its objective is to "build the morality and ethics of Indonesian entrepreneurs."
The minister, himself a former businessman, appears to be raising the ante in his battle to force employers to comply with labor laws.
He said his office is drafting a new labor law to strengthen the legal protection of workers against abuses by employers.
The new law, he said, will carry penalties harsher than the three-months' imprisonment and Rp 100,000 fine stipulated in the current legislation. "Hopefully, we can present the bill to the House of Representatives this year," he said.
Latief reported to the President about the implementation of the government's new regulation obliging companies to pay their workers an extra month's salary ahead of the Idul Fitri holiday.
The minister, who went on a field trip to various cities over the past week, said only 24 labor disputes over the Idul Fitri bonus were registered this year, well down from 78 cases last year. "This is relatively small given that there are over 150,000 companies in all the country."
Latief said there should be no excuses for companies not to pay the Idul Fitri bonus because they have had ample time, since September, to prepare and make the necessary calculations.
On the objection by a group of textile companies concerning the hike in the minimum wage starting in April, Latief also rejected it as groundless.
He pointed out that based on his office's calculations, wages make up 13 percent of costs of textile manufacturers. The bulk of the costs, around 78 percent, goes towards raw materials.
This means that a hike in wages should not affect their overall costs by too much, he said. (emb)