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EDAN, North Sumatra: Workers in North Sumatra staged a rally at the governor’s office in Medan on Wednesday, demanding the government immediately implement a law on social security.

They said the government had breached the Constitution by failing to enforce Law No. 40/2004 on National Social Security System, which should have been put into effect last year.

Rally coordinator Minggu Saragih said the government was indecisive for failing to implement the social security system.

“This proves that our government has totally failed to provide health insurance for the people of Indonesia, as stipulated in Law No. 40,” Saragih told the crowd.

The rally was tightly guarded by police. At least two water cannons and hundreds of personnel were deployed to the site of the rally, but neither was called into action.

Saragih said the government had also caused further misery to workers by implementing Law No. 13/2003 on manpower, which he said benefited only businessmen and victimized workers.

Saragih said that in the revised Law No. 13, businessmen could lay off workers arbitrarily and sue workers who went on strike. He added that workers’ wages were no longer based on decent living standards, but rather on employers’ wishes, and that wages were typically increased only once in two years.

“The revised manpower law basically disadvantages workers and only benefits businessmen and foreign investors,” Saragih said. — JP