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.