Workers condemned to living in uncertainty
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian workers will have to continue to live in prolonged uncertainty, put up with injustice and remain unprotected due to the House of Representatives' failure to endorse the new labor bills.
Muzni Tambuzai, the director general for labor relations and manpower supervision at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, said on Monday that the existing labor laws meant a disaster for workers as they did not specify the time frame within which an industrial dispute must be settled.
The prevailing labor laws were also unjust as there were no penalties for firms that ignored a tribunal's verdict in favor of the workers, he said.
"These are major uncertainties and injustices under the existing laws," he told The Jakarta Post., referring to Law no. 22/1957 and Law no. 14/1969.
He insisted that the two new labor bills were better than the existing laws as the former stated that industrial disputes must be resolved within 120 days, and firms that ignored the verdicts of tribunals would be punished.
Bomer Pasaribu, chairman of the Center for Labor and Development Studies (CLDS), agreed with Muzni, saying that employers, who possessed the money, would always win in industrial disputes due to the failure of the existing laws to specify a period within which a dispute must be settled.
"This situation will trigger labor radicalism and spark more strikes because the workers always lose. This situation means bad news for investment," Bomer told the Post.
Under the current laws, part-time working was permitted with little restriction, regardless of the international conventions limiting it.
Regarding strikes, the existing laws prevented workers from organizing legal strikes as they had to obtain approval from the authorities, which in the past rarely sided with the workers, Bomer said.
When a strike materialized, there was no determination about who would pay the workers' salaries, he said.
Both Muzni and Bomer said that workers could only benefit from the implementation of Ministerial Decree No. 150/2000 on dismissal settlement, which stipulated that workers must be compensated if they resigned.
"But paying compensation to resigning workers is unfair to businesspeople. Thus we will review it in the bills," Muzni said.
Bomer said that the delay in endorsing the labor bills was the best path to take until labor and business both accepted the bills.
Last week, the House of Representatives delayed the endorsement of the bills on industrial dispute settlement and labor protection and development due to strong opposition from workers and business.
It also revoked Labor Law No. 25/1997 which was suspended due to a strong rejection by workers, but was expected to take effect on Oct. 1, 2002.
Law No 22/1957 on settlements of labor disputes and Law No. 14/1969 on labor, and Ministerial Decree No. 150/2000 on severance and service payments remained in effect.
Djimanto from the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) admitted that the current bills were the best choice out of a bad lot despite their various loopholes.
He said, for example, that although the bills did not stipulate who must pay workers during strikes, the fact was that the employers had to pay their workers' salaries, otherwise riots would occur.
He also complained about the ministerial decree which obliged employers to pay severance and service payments for resigning workers and those committing crimes.
"The current rulings do not create a competitive business environment," he said.