Workers urge DPR to stop deliberating labor bills

Workers urge DPR to stop deliberating labor bills

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Some 3000 workers belonging to Forum Lima (the Forum of Five)
staged a protest on Sunday demanding that the House of
Representatives (DPR) stop deliberating bills on worker
protection and the settlement of industrial relations disputes.

Carrying placards calling for an end to labor suppression and
violence against child workers, the protesters marched from the
National Monument (Monas) at Merdeka Square, Central Jakarta, to
the front of the DPR complex.

Field coordinator Musriyanto said that they wanted the House
to revise the two bills and revoke law no. 25/1997 on labor.

According to Musriyanto, law no. 25/1997 was a product of the
New Order regime, which unfairly favored the business community,
while the labor protection bill gave too many privileges to
businesspeople to exploit workers by introducing an internship
program and probation period for workers.

"Such arrangements encourage businesspeople to avoid
responsibility if a worker has an accident, and can leave workers
on probation indefinitely," Musriyanto was quoted by Antara as
saying.

He added that the bill on the settlement of industrial
relations disputes put workers in a difficult position all the
time as it allowed businesspeople to fire workers arbitrarily
without any obligation to pay compensation to laid-off workers.

Musriyanto said they had decided to stage a protest in front
of the House complex as the Ministry of Manpower and
Transmigration had failed to respond to their aspirations.

"Labor protests often end up with companies firing the workers
involved," he said.

On Saturday, National Front for the Struggle of Indonesian
Workers (FNPBI) chairperson Dita Indah Sari said in Jakarta that
up to 80 percent of the country's trade unions rejected both the
two bills and Labor Law No. 25/1997.

"According to data we've gathered so far, almost 80 percent of
trade unions (in Indonesia) reject the two bills. They don't wish
to mobilize massive protests just yet," said Dita, who is also a
noted labor activist.

She said her organization had urged trade unions in large
cities such as Bandung, West Java; Semarang, Central Java;
Surabaya, East Java; and Medan, North Sumatra, to organize
massive protests to reject the bills and law.

"Trade unions are already fed up with the House as their
aspirations are simply ignored (by lawmakers)," she said.

According to Dita, the bills were "sponsored" by large
companies so that labor protests could be used as legitimate
reasons for firing workers.

Earlier, the business community criticized the bills as
"overly protective" and at the expense of investors, warning that
if passed into legislation, they would further deteriorate the
country's business climate.

"If the bills become law, many investors will leave the
country and look for other places in which to invest," chairman
of the National Economic Recovery Committee (KPEN) Sofjan Wanandi
said earlier.

"The bill is overly protective (of workers)," Sofjan said.

According to the bill, companies would have to continue paying
workers their wages, even if they were on strike.

Under the draft, if a worker stages a strike or faces criminal
charges in court it means he is failing to fulfill his daily
duties, but the company would still have to pay the worker's
salary during a strike or for the duration of a trial until the
court verdict.