Legislators upbeat on manpower bill deadline

Legislators upbeat on manpower bill deadline

JAKARTA (JP): All four factions of the House of
Representatives are confident that deliberation of the manpower
bill will be completed by the Sept. 15 deadline.

Time however is fast running out because by yesterday only 64
of 545 contentious issues had been covered by the House's special
committee to discuss the bill.

On top of this, the House will go into recess Friday and will
only resume its activities on Aug. 16.

F.X. Soejitno of the Armed Forces faction detected strong
enthusiasm among committee members to finish deliberating the
bill as properly as possible.

"We will work around the clock if we have to," Soejitno told
The Jakarta Post.

Deliberation of the bill, submitted by the government early
this year, was postponed in April before the election because of
controversy over some of its articles. Deliberation only resumed
last month.

Labor organizations are still protesting the bill which they
said would infringe workers' rights if it was passed in its
present form. The government said the bill was meant to
strengthen workers' rights.

The House is under pressure to finish deliberating all
remaining bills before it ends its five-year sitting on Sept. 30.
New representatives, elected in May, will be installed on Oct. 1.

Iskandar Mandji of the dominant Golkar faction said he was
optimistic that deliberation of the manpower bill would end on
time.

"It may seem a tough discussion, but we all (the factions)
share the principle that a worker should be placed in a respected
position," he said.

Iskandar said that despite the deadline, the committee was
giving a serious and thorough reading of the bill.

There was a heated debate Tuesday among members of the special
committee when the Golkar faction insisted on the inclusion of
the word "partnership" between the government, employers and
workers in Pancasila industrial relations.

Golkar was also insisting on the term equality between the
three parties, Iskandar said.

Amru Almu'tasyim of the United Development Party faction said
the main thing was that House members could agree on crucial
issues such as unionism, strikes, employment terminations and a
dispute settlement mechanism.

"Then, the bill would be completed on time," Amru said.

Tiop Harun Sitorus of the Indonesian Democratic Party faction
said completing the bill on time also depended on the
government's attitude.

"The government should be accommodative in order to finalize
the bill's deliberation," Tiop said. (10)