Prolonged crisis hit low-income workers

Prolonged crisis hit low-income workers

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Low-income workers have endured hard times since the economic
crisis hit the country in 1997, and many have come to expect
nothing better.

Wiguna Saragih, a 25-year-old employee of a ceramic factory in
Cileungsi, Bogor, West Java, said she and her fellow workers had
received part of their wages in cash and the rest in the form of
ceramic ware since the crisis.

Her rental room near the factory site is overcrowded with
thousands of ceramic articles.

"This year, I received only around Rp 350,000 (US$38.5) per
month plus ceramic articles worth Rp 350,000. Our employers have
faced a cash-flow problem, and we accept the policy to avoid
dismissal," she told The Jakarta Post here on Wednesday.

She said a number of workers had been dismissed over the last
three years, while the rest continued working under the new
payment arrangement.

"We have to accept the remuneration policy, otherwise we have
to quit. It's almost impossible to find a new job nowadays," she
said.

Wiguna -- who has been working in the factory since 1996 --
said, while trying to sell ceramic articles from her stockpile to
family members and their neighbors on her days off, she has to
manage her small salary to survive.

"On paper, I can no longer survive in Jakarta," she said,
adding that, if the economy did not improve, she would return to
her hometown Parapat in North Sumatra.

Debby Maliana, a married employee of a garment factory located
hundreds of meters away from president-elect Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono's residence in Cikeas, Bogor, has experienced similar
hardships.

She said her husband, who was dismissed by a local ceramic
factory seven months ago, has rented their motorcycle to a
motorbike taxi provider for additional income. They have a
two-year-old daughter.

"As a mother, I must be able to manage our gross monthly
income, which totals Rp 1 million, to pay for our rental room and
meet our needs," she said. The family spends Rp 100,000 on the
monthly wage of their housemaid and more on milk for their
daughter.

Mega Sabrina, an attendant of a stand selling basic goods at a
big mall in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, said she had no choice
but to accept her job, although she recently graduated from
secretary school.

"Thank God, I can work in the shopping mall, after failing to
get a job as a secretary," she said.

She used her senior high school diploma when applying for her
current job. She has been working for six months, after being
jobless for almost two years.

Mega said her monthly salary was no longer enough to cover her
daily basic needs, but she did not dare to ask for a raise.

"The minimum salary is still OK since I am living with my
parents in a housing complex located only two kilometers from my
workplace. Besides, I am still single," she said.

Dita Indah Sari, chairperson of the National Front for the
Struggle of Indonesian Workers (FNBI), called on the new
government to enforce the law and scrap the high-cost economy, to
create a favorable investment climate that would enable small-
and medium- scale companies to pay workers more than the minimum
wage.

"Most employers are no longer able to pay minimum wages
because of the weak-law enforcement, high-cost economy and
corrupt bureaucracy," she said.

She lashed out at the manpower minister's circular, which
delays the implementation of regional minimum wages based on
humane physical needs until 2006. The circular has justified
employers' reluctance to increase workers' salaries, she said.

Dita said that, despite the annual hike in the minimum wage,
workers had become poorer.

"The annual pay hike serves to adjust to the inflation rate,
but the nominal increase does not really cover the inflation,"
Dita said.

Sofyan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers'
Association (Apindo) expressed his optimism that the next
government would be able to fight corruption and the high-cost
economy, enforce the law, and maintain security and political
stability in a bid to lure more investors.

He agreed that the minimum wage should be determined, not only
by the needs of workers, but by the inflation rate, economic
growth, productivity and companies' financial capabilities.