Striking bus drivers bemoan paltry wages

By Ridwan Sijabat

JAKARTA (JP): Manasal S., a 53-year-old father of two children, lamented that luck had never been on his side and that during his 13 years as a bus driver with state-owned bus firm PPD, he had never earned enough money to adequately support his family.

He said that the small monthly wage he brought home was the cause of chronic bickering with his wife.

"My dear wife has been forced to work as a vendor in the Kramatjati market in East Jakarta to try to get some extra money so that we can take care of my kids and pay for their schooling," he said in an interview with The Jakarta Post while participating in a picket organized by the company's employees here on Thursday.

Some of the bus crews continued the strike on Friday, but their threat to blockade the streets failed to materialize. Minister of Transportation and Telecommunication Agum Gumelar warned that the strike could dent the government's efforts to heal the company.

Manasal, who is paid Rp 430,000 (US$43) per month, was frustrated when the management turned him down last Friday for a Rp 150,000 loan to bring his ailing youngest daughter to hospital to receive treatment for dengue fever.

His wife was forced to borrow money from her family to pay for treatment for the girl at the UKI Hospital. She's in her fifth year at a state-run elementary school in East Jakarta.

"The following day, I drank a glass of insecticide to try and do away with myself, but my wife and neighbors took me to the hospital for treatment," he said, wiping the tears from his bloodshot eyes.

He said he had applied for the loan because the hospital had refused to treat his daughter as he was no longer covered by the state-run social security insurance program (Jamsostek) as the company had allegedly failed to pay the insurance premiums.

Manasal said he had joined the strike to fight for improved welfare for state employees.

"All the bus crews, 5,500 men in total, have been the victims of corruption at the management level.

"We bus drivers and conductors have come out on strike because we can no longer put up with the terrible conditions we have to endure. We must have the courage to fight for what we want. We are not begging, just demanding our rights," he said.

A. Sajuri, another PPD bus driver, said his family had been forced to move from one rented house to another despite his 15 years of service with the company.

"I earned a wage of Rp 457,000 in January, but I received only Rp 290,000 of the money in February after Rp 160,000 was deducted because I was absent for eight days," he complained.

He said he hadn't paid the monthly rent for his house as he had yet to receive his wages for March.

"What triggered the walk out was the management's failure to pay our wages for the last two months," he asserted.

Sajuri said the remuneration system for bus drivers and conductors in the company was inhumane as they were paid only Rp 250,000 at the lowest end of the scale and Rp 500,000 at the highest.

"The wage levels in the company are below the government-set monthly minimum wage for the capital and its environs," he said, citing his eldest son who has been employed as an office boy in a textile company in Ciracas, East Jakarta, and who receives around Rp 750,000 per month.

Sajuri, however, said that during his 15 years of service with the company on low wages, he had nevertheless been able to put his five children through senior high school.

"Given these conditions, no PPD employee will be able to send his children to university so that they can escape from the poverty trap ... none of our children will ever get big government jobs," he said.

Makmur Ginting, secretary of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI)'s PPD chapter, said that he and the other employees were demanding that the government reorganize the state-owned company to allow them to improve their own welfare.

He said the strike would continue until the government make significant changes in the company's management.

"It is not fair to demand higher wages while the company remains unhealthy financially," said Makmur, a father of two young children.