Jakarta workers demand minimum wage increase

The a worker group demonstrated outside City Hall on Friday,demanding an increase to the provincial minimum wage.

Jakarta Workers Forum representative Herry Hermawan said the minimum wage was determined according to the appropriate living standards (KHL).

Herry added that the systems used to calculate KHL and the minimum wage, which is a right of the governor at the proposal of the Wage Board, had become a political affair.

“Apindo [the Indonesian Employers Association] has always set a low KHL value that is far below standards. We ask that the governor approve of a minimum wage of Rp 2,022,898.15, in accordance with the result of an independent survey by ASPEK [workers association] Indonesia,” he said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Herry added that the Jakarta Wage Board has used its authority in regards to setting KHL as a political commodity. He said the board should stick to Manpower and Transmigration Ministry regulation No. 17/2005 which stipulates how KHL should be set.

“To determine KHL, there must be a survey of 46 components of necessities at 10 of Jakarta's traditional markets,” he said.

Herry said that the 2005 ministerial regulation should be revised because it was no longer suited to current conditions.