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.