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.