Maintaining livelihood

Maintaining livelihood

What happens if there is no harmony in the relationship
between a company and its employees.

"The economic life of the nation will be in confusion,"
President Megawati Soekarnoputri said before thousands of workers
and representatives from 30 provincial chapters of the Indonesian
Labor Union (SPSI) recently.

Demonstrations by employees demanding raises were rare during
the New Order era because of the low bargaining position of
workers. They were practically unprotected. But in the current
reform era, labor organizations in Indonesia have played an
increasingly crucial role in providing protection to workers.

According to Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob
Nuwa Wea, there are at least 60 labor organizations in Indonesia
today. The SPSI, chaired by Jacob, is the biggest labor
organization in Indonesia at present. This organization now has
5.1 million members from 12,800 companies in the country.

These labor organizations generally have the same goal, namely
struggling for justice and improving the fate and welfare of
their members. But the increased bargaining position of workers
has frightened businesspeople and would-be investors.

How can businesspeople pay their debts when they have to face
demonstrations by their workers? Certainly, some businesspeople
are very stingy about paying their employees.

In responding to the President's remarks, labor organizations
and labor advocacy agencies should contribute to the maintenance
of a harmonious relationship between employees and employers by
enhancing the professionalism of workers, improving the
negotiating skills of workers and widening their perspective.

These steps are required to avoid the impression that the
establishment of labor organizations has been engineered by
certain interest groups to be used as political vehicles or as a
means of enriching themselves.

-- Bisnis Indonesia, Jakarta