Minimum wages set to rise by 12% in most provinces
Minimum wages set to rise by 12% in most provinces
By Ridwan M. Sijabat
CISARUA, West Java (JP): The official minimum wage levels in
most provinces will rise by at least 12 percent on April 1, a
senior official of the Ministry of Manpower said on Saturday.
L.E. Lubis, the director for wage and social security affairs,
said the increase accounts for various factors, including the
inflation rate and the need to improve the overall welfare of
workers.
"The government feels that the 12 percent increase is fair and
acceptable," Lubis told The Jakarta Post during a break in a
workshop on manpower affairs for journalists.
The new increase will raise the minimum wage in Jakarta and
West Java to Rp 5,100 ($2.2) from Rp 4,600 at present, while the
minimum wage level in Batam will increase from Rp 7,500 to Rp
8,400.
He said that in some provinces, where minimum wage levels are
considered extremely low, the increases will be higher -- some
even 50 percent. Provinces in which minimum wages are considered
too low include Central Java, Yogyakarta, South Sulawesi and East
Nusa Tenggara.
In the case of Central Java, the minimum wage will increase by
almost 50 percent from Rp 2,850 to Rp 4,000, Lubis said.
By regulation, the minimum wage level in each province is set
by a provincial wage council which involves representatives from
the workers union, employers and the government. The wage
increases must then be approved by the Minister of Manpower.
Lubis said the hikes in the minimum wage levels will soon be
formally announced, giving employers more than three months to
prepare and adjust their books.
"Learning from past experience, it is very important for the
government to announce the new minimum wage levels well in
advance so that employers have no excuse not to comply," he said.
In 1992, many employers refused to raise their workers' wages
to comply with the minimum wage level because they were given
less than a month's notice. Their refusal led to many strikes,
some violent, in Jakarta and other major industrial centers.
Meanwhile, during the workshop on manpower affairs, the
Director General for Labor Placement, Abdul Rachim said Indonesia
must brace itself for an influx of foreigners looking for work in
the coming years.
Rachim said trade liberalization mandated under the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) requires countries to open
up their labor market. "As a consequence of GATT, we can no
longer bar, or even limit, the number of expatriates in the
country."
Trade liberalization and economic globalization saddles
Indonesia with the challenge to strengthen the skill of its
workers, he said. "We will lose in the free labor market unless
we strengthen the quality of our human resources."
He said there are currently well over 330,000 foreigners
working in Indonesia and the number is continuously rising.
Mudjianto, secretary of the Directorate General for Training
and Productivity, admitted that Indonesia, compared to many other
countries, had been slow in developing its human resources.
He said however the country still had time to catch up.
The government, he said, citing an example, is now revamping
its vocational training centers.
"This is a good initial step to create professional workers.
"We should be optimistic that with the intensification of
training programs and education system, Indonesia will eventually
have a workforce that is educated, skilled and professional,"
Mudjianto said.