Workers feel the pinch post fuel price hike

Workers feel the pinch post fuel price hike

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For his work at a shoe company in Tangerang, Banten province,
Parluhutan Simbolon is paid Rp 1.3 million (US$103) a month, a
wage he once considered decent.
But since the government raised fuel prices on Oct. 1, it has
been a struggle to make ends meet as the prices of basic goods
have also increased.

Parluhutan's wife is out of work and the couple live with
their two children in a four meter by six m rented house in Pasar
Kemis, some two kilometers away from his workplace. Like other
low-income families, they have cut back this month.

"We consume two packets of instant noodles for breakfast and
another two for dinner almost every day, and my wife prepares
rice with salted fish and vegetables for lunch. We use kerosene
for cooking" he told The Jakarta Post here on Thursday.

He said he walked to his workplace to save on transportation
costs and worked overtime three days a week to save for the
school fees of his children, who attend a nearby state elementary
school.

His recent efforts to apply for a fuel compensation card and
financial aid for his children's education were fruitless.

His company's management, who recently laid off a number of
workers, made the announcement last week that the annual Idul
Fitri bonus would be late due to increasing production costs.

Many workers of shoe and clothing factories in the district
have sent their wives and children back to their villages in
Sumatra, Central and East Java, as living in the capital has
become too expensive.

According to data from the Manpower and Transmigration
Ministry, some 13,000 low-paid workers employed in labor-
intensive factory jobs have been dismissed since the first fuel
price increases in March of this year.

Chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo)
Sofyan Wanandi acknowledged that the fuel price increase policy
had increased the hardships of low-paid workers, particularly as
employers could not easily increase their salaries with tougher
business competition both at home and on the overseas market.

"Indonesian products' competitiveness, both at home and
overseas, has dropped and this has brought negative implications
for workers' financial situations because their purchasing power
will certainly go down while their monthly income does not
improve," he said.

He cited a number of textile and garment companies on the
outskirts of Jakarta, Bandung and Central Java, and sawmills in
Kalimantan and Sumatra, which had laid off their workers because
of the soaring prices of imported raw materials and decreasing
orders from foreign brand owners.

He said many employers had only raised transportation and meal
allowances.

Sofyan said Apindo had sent a letter to President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, asking for the elimination of illegal levies
and annulment of 3,000 contentious bylaws that are detrimental to
businesses, to enable employers to pay the annual bonuses and
raise the workers minimum wage by around 13 percent in January.

He said only large or successful companies were able to pay
the annual bonus to Muslim workers this year, while small
companies had been urged to negotiate with their workers over the
bonus.