Union leader attacks low minimum wage

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)