LBH lawyer wants tough measures for stubborn firms

JAKARTA (JP): Employers here will be beyond the reach of the law if the proposed revision of the Labor Law is passed by the House of Representatives, a lawyer said.

In Jakarta and surrounding areas at least 10 court rulings in favor of employees were passed last year, but had yet to be respected by employers, Apong Herlina said yesterday.

"Before 1996, very few court rulings were ignored by employers," Apong said. "Courts and the arbitration body under the Ministry of Manpower have increasingly lost credibility," said Apong, who heads the labor division at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH).

According to the bill a labor dispute may be settled by an arbitration body, but does not mention whether the ruling of the body would carry sanctions.

Apong said because in the past employers had ignored court rulings which carried sanctions they would be even more likely to defy rulings without sanctions.

Apong cited as an example a security guard of automotive distributor PT Indomobil who had yet to receive severance pay of Rp 5 million.

The Supreme Court ordered Indomobil to pay the guard, but the management said it would wait for the Ministry of Manpower to review the case.

In 1995 the Supreme Court annulled the ministry's decision favoring the management.

Cases like this in which companies ignore the ruling of even the highest level of the judiciary would be more frequent if the bill was passed, Apong said.

Union

Apong also cited a worker at a zipper plant in Tangerang, Muhajir, who was fired in 1992 for wanting to set up a union at the plant. The ministry's arbitration body ruled that he was innocent and that the management of PT Cikita should reinstate him. The management appealed to the Tangerang District Court which supported the body's decision. But Muhajir has yet to be reinstated.

Apong is a member of the Committee to Reform the Labor Law which consists of several non-governmental organizations, including the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute. The committee is campaigning against the bill, which government officials and legislators are to discuss later this month.

Apong said workers would increasingly lose courage to demand their rights with the new bill, even though workers demand basic rights like the minimum wage. Earlier she said workers had a higher legal awareness and many seek legal consultation.

Another clause of the bill says they can only demonstrate within company grounds.

"Most workers here only demand things like the minimum wage," Apong said. "They often march from their workplaces to the council or House of Representatives or to the ministry office, exactly because things cannot be settled within the company."

Also, she said, it would be more difficult for lawyers to defend employees. For instance, a clause in the current law which prohibits the firing of employees who are members of a negotiating team or for reasons related to union activities is not in the new bill.

"We would no longer have the legal basis to defend union members under threat of dismissal," Apong said. (anr)