Union leader attacks low minimum wage

JAKARTA (JP): An official of the Federation of Indonesian Labor Union has criticized the government for failing to significantly raise the minimum wage.

Wilhelmus Bhoka, the federation's deputy chairman, said Saturday that in the past 20 years the country's labor productivity had risen 400 percent while the minimum wage had risen to only US$2.

"Too many political interests are behind the level of minimum standard," Bhoka told a discussion on labor affairs.

Early last week, the federation reiterated its demand of last year that the daily minimum wage of Rp 5,200 ($2.25) be raised 15 percent.

Fauzie Ibrahim, the federation's Jakarta district chairman, was quoted earlier by the Media Indonesia daily as saying that increases in the minimum wage have been inadequate.

Last April, the government raised the minimum daily wage from Rp 4,600 ($2) to Rp 5,200. Some companies have not met this, triggering labor strikes throughout last year.

Labor activists say the current minimum wage can only meet 92.5 percent of workers' basic needs.

The unrecognized Prosperous Labor Union fiercely sticks to its demand that the minimum daily wage be raised to a nationwide average of Rp 7,000.

The government plans to announce a minimum wage rise at the end of this month. But workers must remain patient because any rise will not take effect until April.

Bhoka said that Indonesia's workers' wages were far below the minimum pay for workers in neighboring Thailand and the Philippines.

Thai workers get at least $6.9 a day and Filipinos get $6.6, he said. "However, every time I raise these facts with the government, officials just say 'don't compare them with us, we're different'. But if I don't give comparisons, I don't know where we will go from here."

Acknowledging that his proposed pay rise would affect production costs, Bhoka said that too many non-economic factors were causing high costs.

"The high production cost here does not come from the workers, but it is caused by bureaucratic and political factors.

"If we really want to compete in the free market, we have to stop monopolies, collusion and the infamous illegal levies," Bhoka said.

Bhoka doubted that Indonesia would be able to implement the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) scheme that will begin in 2003.

"We have not been invited to discussions in AFTA since the beginning. We are only told to persuade the workers' not to strike if anything happens later."

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations groups Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Bhoka charged that the government had not implemented Pancasila Industrial Relations which it had vigorously campaigned for.

"The essence of the concept has been practiced in other countries, not here in the homeland. Officials are too busy making rhetoric about it instead," he said.

He said that only democratic countries could compete in the free market. "Typically, a democratic prosperous state is also supported by healthy labor unions," he said, adding that the Indonesian government interferes far too much in the affairs of the labor union.

The Federation of Indonesian Labor Union (FSPSI) is the only union recognized by the government.

"In South Sumatra, I once rejected a local government proposal to install a retired general as the province's FSPSI chairman," he said. "I had to argue with a high-ranking official who insisted on executing the plan. I told him that if you install someone who is not elected by the workers, you will create a time bomb that can explode any time."

Bhoka proposed that the union be authorized to set minimum wages. (35)