Workers told to lobby House over labor bill

CIBITUNG, Bekasi (JP): Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief urged workers yesterday to lobby the House of Representatives if they are not happy with the government-sponsored bill on manpower.

Rather than airing protests through the mass media, Latief said, workers would be more effective in influencing the bill's deliberation if they lobbied House members.

Employers are already actively lobbying the House, he said during a meeting with workers and managers of the National Gobel Group, a leading local electric and electronic manufacturer.

"Workers should read and study the bill carefully and lobby to legislators. You can't just let employers do the lobbying," he said after witnessing the signing of a new collective labor agreement between Gobel's management and their workers.

The House had hardly began deliberating the bill on manpower, when the Federation of the All Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI) condemned the document for giving the government too much power in running the affairs of the union.

Other organizations said the bill "castrated" existing workers' rights. They said the bill was far more restrictive on workers' rights to form association and also limited the workers' right to strike.

Latief said FSPSI's reaction was "emotional" given that the bill had not been deliberated by the House. "Send in your suggestions to the House and the government, and we'll talk it over. That's what democracy is all about," he said.

Latief said the bill was still open to debate and improvement.

"Please channel your reaction through the factions in the House, instead of going public through the press," he said.

Debating the bill outside the proper channels would only serve the political interests of certain individuals or groups, he said, adding that some people have been campaigning to belittle the progress that Indonesia has made in improving workers' rights.

"We can't let them exploit workers for their political ends," he said.

Commenting on Latief's speech, FSPSI chairman Wilhelmus Bhoka, said: "We've done what the minister said, but that's not the only way, is it?"

"If the bill is passed in its present form, it will give the government the right to draw up 25 regulations, one presidential decree, and nine government decrees in order to implement the new law," Bokha said.

But the question would then become "who would control the government?", he asked, casting doubts that some of the regulations would favor interest groups not necessarily beneficial to workers.

FSPSI is the only organization recognized by the government to represent workers in negotiation with management.

The meeting between Latief, Gobel management and workers yesterday became an impromptu mini-rally for dominant Golkar for the May 29 election when Latief symbolically presented Golkar's yellow jackets to 12 Gobel workers.

The minister posed with the workers for a photo, with all of them raising their V-finger, which is the symbol of Golkar.

The election campaign does not officially begin until April 27. (aan)