Ministry to name firms violating labor regulations
Ministry to name firms violating labor regulations
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Manpower will publicly announce
the names of companies which consistently violate Indonesia's
labor laws, beginning next month.
Minister Abdul Latief said that companies which repeatedly
ignored the laws, particularly on minimum wages, would be put on
a blacklist, that would be distributed to various government and
private agencies, including banks, the Antara news agency
reported.
"The ministry will tell these agencies to consider denying
services or loans to those companies," Latief said.
The move is expected to compel employers to stop ignoring the
labor regulations, to start treating their workers as assets and
to improve workers' welfare and productivity, he said.
Three times
He said a company that violated the regulations three times
would be put on the blacklist. This new sanction is to be in
addition to court action against recalcitrant employers.
Latief urged workers to come forward and inform either the
local manpower office or their local representative of the All
Indonesian Workers Union (SPSI) if their employers were violating
the labor regulations.
He said there would be no time limit on a company's inclusion
on the black list. The sanction would be removed, he said, when a
company declared in writing that it would not violate the
regulations again.
Latief said that the recent surge in the number of labor
strikes in the country has been caused by employers' failure to
observe the labor regulations, particularly regarding minimum
wages.
The government raised the minimum wage levels in all of
Indonesia's 27 provinces on April 1. In Jakarta, where there is
the largest concentration of industries, the minimum wage level
was raised to Rp 4,600 per day from Rp 3,800. Most of the recent
strikes have affected companies in Jakarta and the surrounding
districts.
Latief said the government has already shown enough tolerance
towards employers dragging their feet on compliance with labor
regulations. He said companies have had since January to prepare
for and adjust to the new minimum wages.
As of the end of April, only six companies have applied to the
government for a period of grace regarding the wage adjustment,
he said.
SPSI
On a separate occasion, SPSI Secretary General Bomer Pasaribu
announced that his organization is ready to help the ministry
implement his new plan to blacklist offending companies.
"The SPSI, all its local chapters and 11,800 representative
units will even help distribute the list," Bomer said, reported
Antara.
He said it was high time that the government and the
provincial governments side with the workers in order to further
enhance harmonious industrial relations in Indonesia.
Labor Day
Bomer also explained that Indonesia does not mark Labor Day on
May 1 because the day was used by the Indonesian Communist Party
in the 1950s and 1960s to symbolize its struggle, which
culminated in the abortive coup attempt in 1965 by the party.
Because of these "dark pages" in Indonesian history, Indonesia
has stopped celebrating the international Labor Day.
Instead, Indonesia marks the National Workers Day on Feb. 20
each year, which coincides with the anniversary of the SPSI,
founded in 1973 when various workers unions were merged into one
federation.
Bomer accused certain Indonesians, who used the international
Labor Day to stage workers' strike or make unreasonable demands,
of using the communist method of agitation and of exploiting
workers' issues and turning them into political commodities.
Several labor and human rights activists staged a small
demonstration in Jakarta on Labor Day on Monday demanding an
increase in the minimum wages to Rp 7,000 a day.
The demonstrations however were disbanded by the police,
prompting protests from human rights activists. (emb)