Workers, employers to resolve dispute settlement bill
Workers, employers to resolve dispute settlement bill
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Following the endorsement last week of the bill on labor
protection, both labor unions and employers expressed their
readiness to solve contentious issues in the bill on settlement
of labor disputes.
Djimanto, deputy chairman of the Association of Indonesian
Employers (Apindo) challenged labor unions to discuss the bill's
articles which they said were quite crucial, to allow the House
of Representatives to speed up their deliberation.
"Apindo has no problem with the current bill and we are ready
to discuss all crucial issues raised by labor unions. What is
most important is that employers want the bill to be enacted
immediately to give legal certainty to employers and investors,"
he told The Jakarta Post by telephone on Sunday.
Djimanto stressed that investors were really keen to have the
bill enacted as soon as possible to ensure legal certainty and
law enforcement in Indonesia.
"Many investors have pulled out of Indonesia and many others
have declined to invest in Indonesia due to the unfavorable
business climate and the lack of legal certainty and law
enforcement," he said.
Last Tuesday, the House passed the bill on labor protection
into law despite strong objections from minor labor unions. It
followed the enactment of the bill of freedom of association in
1999. The three bills replace controversial Law No. 25/1997 on
major labor issues which was made during president Soeharto's
regime in 1997, Law No. 22/1957 and Law No. 12/1964 on the
settlement of labor disputes, and Law No. 14/1969 on the work
force.
Both workers and employers were still at odds over the crucial
issues on the formation of an ad hoc labor court and industrial
strikes. Workers wanted judges for the special labor court to be
recruited from labor activists and employers wanted the bill to
adopt the "no work no pay principle".
The bill stipulates that the labor court is subordinate to the
district court.
Syukur Sarto, secretary-general of the Confederation of All-
Indonesian Workers Union (CSPSI), said the CSPSI had no problem
with the bill and was ready to discuss the crucial points with
other labor unions and Apindo.
"The House should immediately endorse the bill so that workers
will no longer depend on the current mechanism of labor dispute
settlement which does not provide them with any legal certainty.
With the bill, all labor disputes must be settled within 115 days
or just over three months," he said, citing that under the
current mechanism, a labor dispute may take six years to resolve.
Mochtar Pakpahan, chairman of the Indonesian Prosperity Labor
Union (SBSI), admitted there were many contentious issues in the
bill. He cited as an example the clause that both lawyers and
judges representing workers should be university graduates.
"Labor unions have no funds to hire professional lawyers. And
SBSI won't its members' cases to be tried by judges from other
labor unions to avoid a conflict of interests," he said.
Mochtar said that besides, SBSI could not accept wholly the no
work no pay principle because workers who strike to demand their
rights should be paid.
Muhammad Rodja, secretary-general of the Reformed SPSI, said
workers and employers were scheduled to meet early in March to
discuss the bill.
Suryachandra, chairman of the House's special committee
deliberating the bill, said his committee was waiting for the
results of a meeting between workers and employers.
He hailed the bill, saying settlement of labor disputes under
the mechanism stipulated in the bill would be cheaper and faster.