Sutiyoso delays approving capital's new minimum wage
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Governor Sutiyoso has delayed approval of the 2005 provincial minimum monthly wage pending an agreement between the employer's association and the worker's association.
"The proposed figure of Rp 711,843 (US$78.66) was the result of discussion at the provincial wage council. However, the 21 members of the council failed to reach a compromise so we are still waiting for that," the governor said on Tuesday at City Hall.
Sutiyoso said he had ordered City Manpower Agency head Ali Zubeir to consult with the Ministry of Manpower on the new minimum wage. The ministry issued a circular on July 16 stating that the new provincial minimum wages should be the same or higher than the minimum living costs in the respective provinces.
"We will wait for direction from the ministry to resolve this dispute," the governor said.
Zubeir confirmed that he had been ordered to consult with the ministry, put said he did not expect the meeting would result in significant changes to the proposed minimum wage.
"It is an ordinary consultation meeting to seek clarification about the minister's circular," he said.
He added that there would be no revision to the proposed minimum wage hike. "We will stick to the figure (Rp 711,843) .... There will be a media release on Thursday," he said.
Sutiyoso said earlier he would approve the proposed new minimum wage, which would be a 6.50 percent increase from the previous monthly minimum wage of Rp 671,550, indicating he saw no significant obstacles to the increase.
During the latest discussion on Nov. 5, 14 representatives of the employer's association and the city administration voted for the new Rp 711,843 wage. Seven representatives of the worker's association walked out of the discussion in protest. However, the employer's association and the administration went ahead with a vote on the issue.
The worker's associated is demanding that the minimum wage be at least Rp 759,953, which is the official minimum cost of living for Jakarta.
That figure was reached in a joint survey in July by representatives of the administration, the worker's association and the employer's association.
Earlier, workers demanded the monthly minimum wage be increased to Rp 1.2 million.
The chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association, Sofjan Wanandi, said the employers hoped the wage increase would not exceed the rate of inflation in Jakarta, which is expected to be about 6.5 percent this year.
The city administration has said the wage increase must take into account the interests of everyone involved, arguing that an overly generous increase that could end up harming business activity here.
According to data from the City Manpower Agency, about 25,000 private firms operate in the city, employing approximately four million people. The data also shows that open unemployment in Jakarta is about 589,700.