President Habibie signs ILO convention on unions

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie signed yesterday an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention that guarantees workers freedom to organize.

Decree No. 83/1998 corresponds to ILO Convention No. 87 concerning freedom of association and protection of the rights to organize.

The convention says workers and employers have the right to establish their own organizations or join existing unions without prior approval from anyone.

Unions must also be given freedom to run their own affairs, including joining federations or confederations locally or internationally, free of state interference.

While it states that unions must abide by the laws of the country, the convention also says that laws should not prevent workers from exercising the rights guaranteed by the conventions.

The document, which was enacted by the organization in San Francisco on June 17, 1948, must still be ratified by the House of Representatives before it comes into effect.

The move came while the ILO is holding its annual meeting in Geneva. Indonesia is represented by Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris at the three-week event which opened last week.

Two local unions, FSPSI and SBSI, said last week they had asked the ILO meeting to put pressure on the Indonesian delegation to ratify a number of ILO pacts, including Convention No. 87.

FSPSI, the Federation of the All Indonesian Workers Unions, listed three other conventions Indonesia must still ratify: No. 105 on migrant workers, No. 111 on discrimination in employment and No. 138 on minimum wages.

Officials of the Ministry of Manpower have said the government is studying the other ILO conventions.

Under the Soeharto regime, workers' movements were tightly controlled by the government, and all unions had to be affiliated with the FSPSI.

SBSI, the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union founded by lawyer Muchtar Pakpahan in 1992, was outlawed and several of its leaders, including Pakpahan, were jailed.

SBSI has since been given official recognition and Pakpahan released from jail. He was asked to join the Indonesian delegation to the current ILO meeting. (emb)