Number of workers' strikes soared in 1994

JAKARTA (JP): All was not well on the labor front in Indonesia, at least not in 1994.

The All Indonesian Workers Association said yesterday that the year saw a total of 1,130 workers' strike, an increase of 350 percent over 1993, which recorded only 312 strikes.

The association's chairman Imam Sudarwo said the strikes were all conducted because workers were pressing for their "normative" rights, from demanding that they be paid at least the minimum wage level and overtime and holiday to demands that they be covered by the workers social insurance program.

West Java has the worst record with 581 strikes, followed by East Java with 200, Jakarta 146, North Sumatra 140, Central Java 54, Riau five, West Kalimantan three and South Sumatra one.

These strikes could not be considered disruptive to national stability given that the workers went on industrial action to demand what was rightfully theirs as recognized by the legislation and various regulations, Imam told reporters.

Imam appealed to the government, in this case the Ministry of Manpower, to be more active in ensuring that employers comply with labor legislation, even to the point of prosecuting them.

He said in recent months the government has been showing a greater willingness to punish delinquent employers and this is encouraging.

He also said that apart from the soaring number of strikes, 1994 has not been all that bad for workers.

There was an increase in the minimum wage, greater protection for workers, with the government compelling companies to enlist workers in the social security program, greater freedom for workers to form their union representatives, and also a government ruling that compels companies to pay their workers a 13th month salary each year.

The few remaining problems on labor issues stemmed from the attitude of some employers who still treated workers as merely tools of production and not partners as they should be.

These employers only gave in to the workers' demands after strikes, he noted.

He said the association hopes the government will further increase minimum wage levels in 1995 to at least equal the minimum decent living requirement. The minimum wage should no longer be judged in terms of the workers' minimum physical requirement.

On unionization of workers, he said only 11,414 out of approximately 40,000 registered companies have allowed their workers to set up association representatives. Of these, only 8,100 companies have signed collective labor agreements with the workers' representatives. (emb)