Workers told to lobby House over labor bill

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)