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.