Low workers' wages

Low workers' wages

One of the most controversial issues currently concerns the
wages of Indonesian laborers which, according to the regional
minimum wage regulations, should be Rp 4,000 or about US$2.2
while in China, which has the "evil" communist system, workers
earn a minimum of US$5.8 or Rp 13,000 a day. People might say
this is strange; after all, we have the Pancasila system under
which employers must treat their workers as their own kin.

This is why it is surprising to learn that a number of
associations of industries intend to sue Manpower Minister Abdul
Latief at the State Administrative Court. Obviously this action
on the part of the associations is not in line with the proposals
drawn up by the Federation of All-Indonesia Workers Associations
(FSPSI).

It is no secret that FSPSI proposed a 15 percent increase of
the regional minimum wages, but that a raise of only between
seven and eight percent was approved. And even this was met with
heated objections from employers.

So maybe the idea to require those businessmen to take a
hundred or two hundred hours of Pancasila instruction is a good
one. If that isn't enough, this could be increased to four
hundred or six hundred hours.

-- Merdeka, Jakarta