Local and foreign NGOs urge review of manpower bill

JAKARTA (JP): Criticism of the draft manpower bill grew yesterday as 26 national and international Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) declared their opposition and urged the government to revise it.

"The manpower bill will impose severe restrictions on workers' fundamental rights," they said in a declaration.

The declaration was issued one day after an international conference on trade union rights in Indonesia.

Christopher Ng, regional secretary of the Asia and Pacific Organization of the Internal Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees, said yesterday that the bill will give the government extensive control over every aspects of industrial relations.

Seventeen local NGOs and nine foreign trade unions signed the declaration. Among the signatories were the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, the unrecognized Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union and the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

The declaration pointed to at least 12 articles in the bill which they said violated international labor standards.

It said Article 24 of the draft bill "reinforces authoritarian control over workers and trade unions".

Article 29 compromises the right to set up trade unions by putting a quorum on the minimum of workers support for the union, it said.

Article 78 was said to provide inadequate protection against unfair dismissal.

The draft bill consists of 18 chapters and 159 articles and is expected to replace six ordinances and nine laws on labor affairs issued between 1887 and 1969.

It will later serve as an umbrella law for all legislation relating to manpower affairs.

The NGOs urged the government and the legislature to hold a "complete revision of the manpower bill in accordance with the spirit of universally accepted labor standards and to provide significant revisions to include fundamental workers' rights".

However, legislators have said that the bill is likely to be passed by mid-September.

Separately, the Chairman of the Federation of All-Indonesia Workers Union (FSPSI) Wilhelmus Bokha also expressed his reservations.

Bokha said the draft bill failed to clearly define the term "partnership", used to describe relations between employers and workers, as stipulated in Article 3.

The bill only said that "manpower development is based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution".

Suggesting a case of ideal relations between employers and workers, Bokha said laborers should be invited to partake in a company's decision making process.

"Workers must be invited to participate in the company's meetings."

He said there should be a mechanism which would enable workers to participate in the company's management through a representative in the company's board of directors.

"This would eliminate workers' suspicion and sprout a sense of belonging and responsibility among workers in the company." (05/10)