Manpower bill criticized for being business-oriented

JAKARTA (JP): Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) criticized a government-sponsored bill on manpower for placing greater emphasis on business considerations than on the issues of manpower development and workers' interests.

Abdul Hakim G. Nusantara, the director of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy, said yesterday that the bill also mixed discussion on manpower management with that of workers' interests.

"The issue of manpower management and that of workers' interests are two different things, which are not to be confused," he said when issuing a joint statement by Indonesia's labor NGOs.

"The first focuses on how to develop better manpower, while the second issue deals with our workers' poor bargaining power."

He suggested that the government split the two issues and establish a separate bill for each. The bill on manpower is currently being discussed at the State Secretariat before it is to be submitted for deliberation to the House of Representatives.

Abdul Hakim, who is an outspoken labor rights campaigner, said the bill is more preoccupied with how to attract more foreign and domestic industrial investment by offering low-paid workers.

The government, he said, justified its stance on the fact that Indonesia is gearing up for the coming free trade era.

He called on the government to better manage the two different interests in order to protect workers' rights.

Teten Masduki, director of the worker division at the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, accused the government of arranging the bill in such a way as to provide it with unhampered authority to be the sole interpreter.

Teten also criticized the bill for attempting to regulate the right of workers to choose not to join the officially-sanctioned All-Indonesia Workers Union Federation and establish independent organizations.

He pointed to an article which says that the "workers' union and federation of unions should be registered to manpower authorities". He also cited one which states that "the procedures for the registration will be regulated in a directive".

"Those articles need further explanation," Teten said. The government would then be able to provide its own interpretation of the bill in order to control workers, he said.

Teten also said registration should not be used as the reason for legalizing or censuring a workers organization.

Teten said the bill also fails to clarify what it means when it says in Chapter II, Article 3 that "every worker is equal before the law, and so the law and its directives must not be implemented in ways which discriminate against sexes, religions, ethnic groups, faith and race."

"The term 'discrimination' needs to be explained," he said. (16)