Workers demand 100% increase in wages
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang
Thousands of workers grouped under the Cisadane Workers Coalition (KBC) staged a rally in Tangerang municipality on Thursday to demand that the administration double the current minimum wage for next year.
They also insisted that the team assessing the minimum wage adopt the result of a survey conducted by the workers on the minimum cost of living.
"The government's team concluded that the minimum cost of living in Tangerang is Rp 803,485. But, in our survey, we found that a worker with a spouse and one child needs at least Rp 1.4 million," Sunarno, KBC coordinator told The Jakarta Post.
"Besides that, the fuel price hike of more than 100 percent has caused the prices of all goods to increase so that minimum cost of living has automatically doubled," he said, adding that the government had always failed to enable workers to have a decent standard of living.
He said that if the minimum wage for 2006 turned out to be lower than Rp 1.4 million per month, some 30,000 workers grouped under KBC would continue to rally and even strike.
Meanwhile, head of the Tangerang Municipal Manpower Agency, Adang Turwana, who also led the team in assessing the minimum cost of living, confirmed that the survey held in three main markets in Tangerang showed that the amount needed to cover the minimum monthly living expenses for a worker was Rp 803,485.
"We held the survey at Anyer market, Cileduk and Malabar markets, involving 30 members comprising businessmen, scholars, workers and administration officials," Adang said.
"We suspect that KBC's survey was not held in accordance with the procedure stipulated in the Manpower Ministry Decree No. 17/2005 on the minimum cost of living."
Adang said that the team had yet to decide whether the minimum wage for 2006 would be determined based on the survey result.
"Based on past experience, the minimum wage for 2006 will not be far from the survey result or in other words the increase will not be more than 15 percent higher than the current wage of Rp 693,500," he said.