Local and foreign NGOs urge review of manpower bill

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)