New program launched to improve labor conditions
JAKARTA (JP): The government is launching a comprehensive industrial relations program to improve labor conditions in the country, says Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief.
"Despite some encouraging advances achieved last year, we still have many things to do to improve labor conditions, including the welfare of workers and the enforcement of labor laws," he told The Jakarta Post before his departure to Geneva over the weekend.
The minister and his entourage of high rank officials from the Ministry of Manpower, left for Geneva to attend the governing body meeting of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Nov. 16-18.
Latief said that the comprehensive program included enforcing daily minimum wage regulations and the ministerial decree on annual bonuses, helping solve industrial disputes between workers and the management, and making a list of companies who violate the law.
"I want to see the program get under way as of next month and to evaluate its results on a monthly basis," he said.
He said he has set up an integrated team of three director generals and several Echelon One officials to enforce the program and to monitor its progress in the field.
"The team is responsible for making the program a success," he added.
Latief said the program has nothing to do with the on-going Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting attended by the many world leaders concerned with the human rights condition in the country.
He said he will be "tested" on whether or not his recent decision to hike the regional minimum wages and to make the annual bonus for workers compulsory could be implemented thoroughly and smoothly.
Latief, a successful businessman who was appointed by President Soeharto as minister of manpower in March 1993, recently issued a decree on the compulsory bonus and will, as of next April, raise the daily minimum wage as high as minimum physical necessities.
He said his ministry would train 60 inspector candidates every year. "At present we have only around 800 inspectors and this is far from enough to enforce the labor law and monitor nearly 145,000 companies across the country."
He acknowledged that weak enforcement of labor regulations in the past had many things to do with alleged collusions between the management and law enforcers. "Under the program, many kinds of irregularities, including such collusions are expected to be reduced."
Drowned
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Ministry of Manpower Fachri Taharuddin told the Post yesterday that the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, in cooperation with Malaysian authorities, was still searching for Indonesian migrants drowned in Malaysian waters last Friday.
A five-meter wooden boat was overloaded with scores of illegal Indonesian workers when it was hit by strong waves and capsized two nautical miles off Tanjung Balau in Malaysia's southernmost state of Johore.
The craft was ferrying its passengers from Tanjung Pinang in Indonesia's Riau islands.
At least 18 died and 43 were missing while 26 others survived, including the boat captain and crew members, when the boat capsized.
The twenty-six passengers managed to survive by swimming to the shores.
"The rescue officials will continue their efforts until Sunday," Fachri said, adding that those reported missing were expected to be found in a few days.
Reuter, reported yesterday, however, hopes faded for the missing Indonesian workers still missing, according to rescue officials.
Fachri said the dead victims were buried in Kota Tinggi, 340 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur, while the 26 survivors were still being detained by Malaysian Marine Police for questioning.
Fachri contacted Indonesian Labor Attache Abdul Karim in Kota Tinggi and said that the survivors will be repatriated to their home villages in East Java and West Nusa Tenggara.
He said the boat's owner and crew members will be taken to court on charges of smuggling illegal migrants.
Hundreds of Indonesians every week enter Malaysia illegally seeking jobs in that country. (rms)