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)