Textile factories told to move to cheaper areas
Textile factories told to move to cheaper areas
JAKARTA (JP): Can't pay your workers the minimum wage? Then
relocate your plant to areas where the official minimum wages are
relatively lower.
That's the message given yesterday by Minister of Manpower
Abdul Latief to 70 textile and garment manufacturers in West Java
who raised objections to the increases in the minimum wages in
their area from Rp 3,800 to Rp 4,600 a day effective April 1.
He suggested Central and East Java, where the official minimum
wages, even after the raises, will still be Rp 3,000 and Rp 3,700
respectively.
There is another incentive why they should move, according to
Latief. Land prices there are cheaper too.
But Latief, who was speaking to reporters after meeting Vice
President Try Sutrisno at the Merdeka Selatan palace, made it
clear that every employer should comply with the minimum wage
regulations.
A few hours earlier, the chairman of the Association of
Indonesian Textile Enterprises Bambang Yoga Soegomo told
reporters after meeting with President Soeharto that more than 70
garment and textile companies in West Java are threatened with
bankruptcy because of the raises in minimum wages.
Bambang said he had asked for temporary exemption from the
wage increases for textile and garment companies given that they
provide large employment opportunities.
He pointed out that many textile and garment companies in
Indonesia are already in dire financial difficulties because
their exports slumped last year.
Latief simply echoed what had already been suggested by
President Soeharto early this month that labor intensive
companies, including garment and textile, relocate to regions
where the minimum wages are still relatively lower.
The proposal would also stop the migration of people to
Jakarta and West Java and spread the workers more evenly between
regions, he said.
The minister said so far his office had not received any
formal request to be exempted from the minimum wage raises.
He said by regulation, companies which have financial
difficulties could be exempted from the wage regulation but only
after their books are audited by public accountants and with the
consent of the workers. (rms)