RI yet to implement ILO declaration

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia has yet to implement the International Labor Organization (ILO) Declaration on fundamental principles of labor, an official said on Wednesday.

"ILO highly respects the Indonesian government for ratifying all the fundamental conventions of the declaration in 1998. This is a signal of Indonesia's political will to adopt the universal rights of workers," executive director of the Geneva-based International Labor Organization Kari Tapiola said.

He said Indonesia was the first Asian country to ratify the declaration.

"However, due to the economic crisis, Indonesia has yet to implement the principles in the ILO Declaration," he told a joint media briefing at a three-day seminar on trade unions and the ILO Declaration.

Present at the media conference were secretary-general of the ASEAN Trade Union Council (ATUC) Zainal Rampak and director- general for Industrial Relation and Labor Standard of the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration Syaufii Syamsuddin.

The seminar, being held from Wednesday to Friday, is focusing on workers' freedom of association and rights to collective bargaining, the elimination of all forced or compulsory labor, the abolition of child labor, and the elimination of discrimination in the workplace.

Tapiola said the economic crisis which hit the Asian region had caused some 5 million people to lose their jobs.

"The crisis has weakened the bargaining position of workers and labor unions.

"It has also weakened small and medium-scale enterprises," he said.

He said ILO would provide assistance to Indonesian in establishing the procedure and legislation needed for the implementation of the declaration.

"However, the problem also lies in the abundance of labor unions in today's reform era, compared to the single labor union during the New Order regime," Tapiola said.

To date, Indonesia has 35 federated labor unions, 135 nonfederated labor unions and more than 11,000 company labor unions.

"We do not know if the unions truly represent the workers. But we are here to help Indonesia make its labor unions more effective," Tapiola said.

He said ILO had studied the different models of labor unions in Asia.

"Unfortunately, there was no single model that was fit to be applied here. However, we are committed in helping Indonesia," he said.

Meanwhile, Syaufii Syamsuddin said labor strikes were a problem.

"Many workers have tried to use strikes to intimidate their employers even before any negotiations were made.

"They also strike without following procedures stipulated in the manpower legislation," Syaufii said.

He cited the move taken by employees of Shangri-La Hotel who went on strike during the recent holiday season of Christmas, Idul Fitri, and New Year.

"Staging strikes should be the workers' last resort, after negotiations with employers fail," Syaufii said.

However, Syaufii said, the ILO convention could not protect Indonesian housemaids working abroad.

"Indonesian housemaids working in Saudi Arabia are legally unprotected because the Saudi government does not have provisions for housemaids in its legislation," Syaufii said.

"Housemaids are considered nonformal workers, compared to formal workers, such as those working in oil production firms, who are protected by the International manpower regulation," Syaufii said.

Zainal Rampak admitted that in many cases, employers had ignored workers' demands.

"It's understandable if workers go on strike when their demands are ignored.

"But, we can learn from labor unions in Malaysia and Singapore on how to settle disputes with employers," Rampak said. (02)