Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno has denied being caught up in personal or institutional conflicts with Jumhur Hidayat and his Labor Export and Protection Agency (BNP2TKI), a new government agency he said was under his coordination and had an equal position with outsourcing companies.
Expressing regret over recent explosive media coverage that positioned him and Jumhur at loggerheads, and claiming to fear disrupting the good relations between Jumhur and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Erman asked the BNP2TKI to comply with the law and other regulations in doing its main task of supply workers overseas under his coordination.
"The Manpower and Transmigration Ministry has never taken over the BNP2TKI's tasks, but what I'm doing is righting its wrong position and describing its core tasks in accordance with Law No. 39/2004 on labor export and protection and the 2004 regional administration law, to prevent Parliament impeaching the President over law infringements," he told The Jakarta Post in an unofficial visit to East Java over the weekend.
He stressed the BNP2TKI, a new agency set up under Presidential Instruction No. 81/2006 as mandated by the 2004 labor export and protection law, fell under his ministry's auspices and should work under his coordination as labor minister.
"The BNP2TKI is a government agency, but its leadership is not a ministerial post and it has no authority supervising private labor export companies or even taking over their tasks, because it is only an operating agency, not a regulator or policy maker.
"It is required to unveil accountability to the President through the coordinating minister of labor," he said, adding this was the main reason he issued Ministerial Decree No. 22/2008 on labor placement and protection overseas, over which Jumhur recently appealed to Supreme Court for a judicial review.
Erman stressed the ministerial decree stipulated the BNP2TKI had no authority to regulate or supervise labor recruitment, labor competence certification and labor card issuance, three special tasks that were regulated by the manpower minister with regional administrations and private outsourcing companies.
"The BNP2TKI cannot directly supply workers without coordinating with the manpower minister, who, along with the foreign minister, is required to make bilateral agreements with destination countries," he said, adding the Foreign Ministry already had such agreements with the United States and European countries, while the agency was still concentrating on labor placement in South Korea and Taiwan.
Jumhur was not available for comment Monday, but the Confederation of Indonesian Independent Labor Union (Gaspermindo), which he chairs, called on the Supreme Court to annul the ministerial decree, saying it violated the 2004 labor export and protection law.
Gaspermindo lawyer Rangguh Adven Parmoto said they had appealed against the ministerial decree because it had usurped the agency's authority, function and tasks.
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