Manpower bill talks in progress

JAKARTA (JP): Legislators deliberating the widely-criticized manpower bill claimed yesterday they have achieved progress by including a provision that the establishment of workers' unions is to be regulated by a separate law.

The legislators argued that the provision will help ensure that the bill, if passed, will protect workers' rights.

Zain Badjeber of the United Development Party (PPP), Tadjuddin Noer Said of the dominant Golkar, and Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief agreed yesterday that they have reached some agreement.

They were speaking separately after the first day of the government-sponsored bill's open deliberation at the House of Representatives yesterday.

"We've agreed that some principles regarding workers' unions will be regulated in a (different and yet to be drawn up) law," Bedjeber told reporters after meeting representatives of 1,000 factory workers who demonstrated outside the House during the bill's deliberation.

"There's no need to worry even if the bill passes right now, because it has opened the possibility for another law that will protect workers," Tadjuddin separately said.

The bill's progress, according to Tadjuddin, has given workers a "constitutional margin" which could be beneficial in the future.

"Even though the present bill does not cover all workers' interests, it's at least not the end," Tadjuddin said, without elaborating.

While Latief said: "The government is hopeful that the bill will become a platform or framework for future laws regarding workers, so that workers will be aware of their position."

Latief said yesterday's deliberation of the bill with the House was "democratic and balanced" and that the government was "accommodative" toward aspirations raised by legislators, workers and labor advocates.

Latief pointed out yesterday's demonstration of over 1,000 workers of the All-Indonesia Workers Union Federation (Federasi SPSI) coming from about 50 companies in Jakarta and Bekasi as an example of a democratic way of channeling aspirations.

Demonstration coordinators said that yesterday's demonstration -- which will be repeated until next Thursday in gradually larger numbers of workers -- was a "sympathetic action" staged to give morale support for legislators to fight for their cause.

Approval

Since its introduction to the House earlier this year, the bill has been criticized for allegedly neglecting workers' rights. For instance, the bill stipulated that workers could only go on strike after giving three days' advance notice.

It also stipulated that a trade union could only be set up if it had the approval of the majority of workers at a factory. The current manpower law, enacted in 1969, requires only a minimum of 25 people to support such a union.

Asked whether the government agreed to comply with the House on the matter, Latief said: "It still has to be decided ... but the government will be accommodative. That workers' unions are to be regulated by a law is also the government's initiative, isn't it?"

PPP's minutes of the deliberation mentioned that further regulations on workers' unions would be under a law.

Another controversial article in the bill was one that allowed employers to withhold wages from striking workers.

Research conducted in 1993 and 1994 by the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute revealed that 90 percent of strikes in Greater Jakarta dealt with salary problems.

Yesterday's deliberation surprised many journalists who were covering the session because of the speediness of legislators giving their approval on several items debated.

However, Zain said the House would not force itself to pass the bill in a hurry, but would be thankful to God if they could finish it before the current House term ends on Sept. 30.

There has been speculation that the government has been pushing legislators to pass the bill before their term ends, especially when there were closed meetings to debate the bill at the Horison Hotel, North Jakarta, between July 25 and July 30, during a House recess.

In a related development, the Jakarta State Administrative Court rejected a lawsuit yesterday filed by workers of a textile company against the Directorate General of Industrial Relations and Control of the Ministry of Manpower which approved a late request for postponement of a wage increase by the company.

Judge Tengku Abdurahman Husni ruled that the approval was not against the law even though the request should have been submitted a month before the implementation of the Minister of Manpower's decree on minimum wage on Apr. 1, 1996. (05/aan)