Official decries labor law enforcement

Official decries labor law enforcement

United States-based Human Rights Watch and the Asian Labor
Network on International Financial Institutions (ALNI) have
recently criticized the poor labor conditions in Indonesia. The
Jakarta Post's Ridwan Max Sijabat interviewed newly appointed
Director General of Labor Standards at the Manpower and
Transmigration Ministry Marudin S.M. Simanihuruk on the issue at
his office on Friday.

Question: Why do complaints about labor law violations and labor
strikes still continue even after so many labor reforms have been
implemented?
Answer: The public's increasing complaints about labor law
violations and labor strikes are an indication that workers'
conditions, in general, still remain poor. That has a lot to do
with the weak enforcement of the labor laws.

Entering the reform era that began in 1998, Indonesia created
a new package of labor laws, which have already taken effect, but
have not yet been fully enforced for numerous reasons.

Q: Would you like to elaborate, please?

A: We ratified Law No. 21/2000 on freedom of association but
only a handful of the 76 labor unions registered with our
ministry and a majority of workers have no unions representing
them. Law No. 13/2003 on industrial relations was also passed,
but the violation of core labor standards and norms, even in
state-owned companies, is still rife.

I was deeply concerned with the recent unilateral decision by
state-owned aircraft manufacturer company PT Dirgantara Indonesia
to dismiss some 80 percent of more than 9,350 workers and then
offering severance pay lower than that required by the law.

We now have Law No. 2/2004 on Settlements of Labor Disputes
and Law No 21/2003 on labor inspection but the two laws have not
been fully enforced yet for a variety of reasons. Everybody
involved, including employers, the government and workers seem to
be unprepared to fully comply with the new laws.

Q: What kinds of violations commonly occur?

A: All the worst forms of labor law violations are still
happening in Indonesia. We have 2.5 million child laborers,
mostly employed by fishery companies along the North Sumatra
coastal areas with low pay and inhumane living conditions. The
violation of workers' basic rights on salaries, working hours,
break times, allowances and social security are still rampant.

Many employers continue to pay workers below the minimum wage
and many workers still work more than the recommended seven hours
a day and seven days a week. Most workers employed on
construction projects or chemical factories do not use proper
safety equipment. In addition, only 28 million of almost 90
million workers are part of the obligatory government social
security program (Jamsostek). Other violations still occur too.
We have already ratified 26 of 165 ILO Conventions, including
eight conventions on core labor standards, but what we are seeing
is that child labor is rife and labor strikes to protest
discrimination and exploitation have frequently been held.

Q: Why is the violation of core labor standards still
rampant?

A:The rampant infringement of the workers' basic rights has a
lot to do with the fact that labor inspections are still
ineffective and quite weak and this condition is because of the
shortage of labor inspectors. So far, the central government has
only 650 labor inspectors to check up on more than 176,700
companies, meaning that each inspector, on average, must monitor
220 companies. Ideally, it should to a 1:50 ratio to be
effective.

The poor implementation of regional autonomy has also
contributed to widespread labor abuse. With the decentralization
of the labor inspection authority to regions, our ministry can no
longer monitor inspections, while almost 80 percent, or 900 of
1,500 registered labor inspectors have been moved to other jobs
outside their expertise. In addition, 89 regencies and
municipalities have no labor inspectors at all.

However, the government cannot take a repressive approach to
enforce the labor laws, because that would mean an exodus of
foreign investors.

Q: What are you planning?

A: First of all, I am establishing a good system with an
adequate number of labor inspectors while enhancing cooperation
with International Labor Organization (ILO), labor unions and the
Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) to campaign for a new
package of labor laws, especially core labor standards.

We have been working with the state minister of administrative
reform and the minister of justice and human rights to recruit
and train an additional 3,500 new labor inspectors to be
stationed in all regencies and industrial zones nationwide.

All the existing labor inspectors have been instructed to take
strict action against companies violating the core labor
standards. Companies ignoring labor inspectors' rulings must be
brought to court.