Workers condemned to living in uncertainty
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.