Workers 'should be made shareholders'

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris suggested yesterday workers be given a stake in their companies to help improve their productivity and social welfare.

"Workers should be given opportunities to own a small part of companies where they are employed to boost their productivity and social welfare," he said when receiving the executive board of the Indonesian Workers Trade Union Federation (Gaspermindo) at his office yesterday.

He said that journalists, as stipulated in the press law, had the right to own 20 percent of their publishing companies' shares.

He expressed deep concern about the poor labor conditions following the prolonged economic crisis and said that most labor disputes would not have happened had workers been given opportunities to own shares in the companies employing them.

He said that many financially troubled companies had dismissed employees, prompting waves of protests among workers and causing unemployment to soar.

"We regret that both the government and investors have failed to think of the social impacts of the economic crisis," he said.

"You can imagine, since many workers have been dismissed, how many mouths cannot be fed since the crisis hit the country."

He said that thousands of other workers were under threat of dismissal every day while the number of unemployed was expected to reach more than 15.5 million by the end of this month.

"This is the social cost that we must pay for the crisis."

Furthermore, he said, workers still had poor bargaining power since many of them had yet to form unions and most employers were not committed to protecting their labor forces.

He cited South Korean investors who still insisted on cheap labor.

According to data from the All-Indonesia Workers Union Federation (FSPSI), only 11 percent of the 40 million workers have their own labor organizations.

Fahmi, however, urged workers to go to negotiating tables in search for solutions to their disputes rather than to go on strike.

"Of course, they (workers) have the right to stage demonstrations, but, I think, it is not effective because they will eventually still have to negotiate with the management," he said. Demonstrations should be considered the last resort to force management to the negotiating table.

Director for Industrial Relations and Labor Standards Syaufi'i Syamsudin, who accompanied the minister in the meeting, said that besides the FSPSI and the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI), four new trade unions had recently declared their establishment following the government's decision to allow freedom of labor association.

The four are the Serbu Musi Trade Union, the Indonesian Moslem Workers Union (PPMI), the Marhaenist Workers Unin (KBM) and Gapermindo.

Syaufi'i said the Civil Servants Corps (KORPRI) and the Association of State-owned Plantation Employees (Perkappen) were preparing to declare their establishment in the near future. (rms)