Media groups lack union representation

Tony Hotland Jakarta

Despite widespread coverage of labor rights and trade unions by the press, it is a tad ironic that almost no mass media companies have employee unions.

Research by the Alliance of Independent Journalists last year found that out of over 1,000 press companies nationwide, only three had trade unions registered with the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.

"They were SCTV in Jakarta, Waspada in Medan, and the Surya Group in Surabaya," said Jajang Djamaluddin on Thursday.

When contacted by The Jakarta Post, however, SCTV said that its trade union had been dissolved, but they refused to say why.

The scarcity of trade unions in the industry, said Jajang, was mostly the result of an immense fear on the part of company management over a possibility that their power could be undermined.

"They also worry that such organization of employees would waste too much time and effort complaining about greater benefits, while distracting the employees from their duties," said Jajang.

The study also found that 28 media groups had "quasi-unions", which were informal organizations without legal status.

Registered trade unions are entitled to question decisions made by the management and to solicit support from the manpower ministry for advocacy and mediation.

Unlike registered trade unions, informal employee organizations can only act as informal mediators between the management and the employees.

"Many of these informal organizations do very little. Unless, a critical event occurs such as mass dismissals or bankruptcy," Jajang said.

He added that most of the quasi-unions emerged after the 1998 economic crisis when many companies were forced to shut down.

Jajang said the establishment of a legal trade union in a company would be easy to achieve since it could pave the way for the enactment of a joint working agreement.

With such an agreement, employees and employers could work in coordination when drawing up the rights and obligations of each party. "Should any party violate the agreement, it would have legal and recognized rights for litigation," he said.