Military to stay out of labor disputes, official says

JAKARTA (JP): A government spokesman gave assurances yesterday that the Armed Forces (ABRI) will never intervene in labor disputes, which remain the domain of the Ministry of Manpower.

Fachri Taharuddin, the chief spokesman of the Ministry of Manpower, said ABRI will only be brought in if a dispute gets out of control and is a threat to national stability.

Fachri said that the workers' protest which turned into a full scale riot in Medan, North Sumatra, last month was a situation in which the intervention of the military was justified.

His statement was apparently intended to subdue criticisms by legislators and labor leaders for remarks made by an ABRI senior officer early this week.

The remarks, made by ABRI's Chief of Socio-Political Affairs Lt. Gen. Hartono, suggested that Bakorstanas, the internal security agency, could be deployed to intervene in labor disputes.

The critics saw the remarks to be contradictory to the government's decision last January. At that point, they decided to revoke a manpower ministerial decree which allowed companies to summon the military to quell labor strikes.

Asked to comment on Hartono's remarks, Fachri said it was essentially a suggestion because he was then speaking at a seminar discussing industrial relations.

"You should know where the general made the statement," he said. "He was only offering a suggestion at a seminar on industrial relations. This seminar was grappling with the problem of whether it is necessary to deploy a military or security approach in trying to solve labor problems."

Labor observers noted that, in the aftermath of the Medan riot, the local military sent its officers to many factories to put pressure on management to pay their workers at least the minimum wage stipulated by the government.

ABRI, however, has been the target of criticism from labor activists in the past for the way it sided with management in labor disputes.

Fachri said that the only involvement that the military would have in labor disputes from now on would be to simply accompany manpower officials to ensure that all labor regulations are complied with. (rms)