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abor unions and four of their main umbrella organizations are urging the government to completely overhaul the national remuneration system, including minimum wage regulations.

The unionists have claimed that the existing system has hampered improvements in social justice and has reduced workers’ purchasing power every year.

A powerful alliance of labor unions, including the Confederation of All-Indonesian Workers’ Union (KSPSI), the Confederation of Indonesian Prosperous Labor Unions (KSBSI) and the Indonesian Confederation of Trade Unions (ICTU) , on Monday warned that they would continue to stage rallies and strike until reforms were put in place.

KSPSI chairman Mathias Tam-bing said that the growing labor movement in several provinces was the last resort for workers in their fight against the “injustice and their exploitation by employers”, who conspired with those in power.

“Do not blame the workers’ blockades of industrial areas and toll roads on the workers, but have a comprehensive evaluation of the exploitative and unfair unemployment system, which has weakened our purchasing power over the past two decades,” he said.

Inspired by the events that saw unions in the Bekasi regency, West Java, force the government and the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) to approve new minimum wages, workers from Banten’s Tangerang regency have threatened to block access to toll roads that connect the capital city to Merak Port and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Feb. 9.

Mathias described the current provincial minimum wages, which range from Rp 600,000 (US$66) to Rp 1.5 million per month, as inhumane.

He said that it was “exploitation” because the majority of workers employed under the contract-based outsourcing system could not support their families during difficult economic conditions.

KSBSI chairman Mudhofir criticized the government for its recently announced plan to revise Ministerial Decree no. 17/2005, which regulated provincial minimum wages. He said the government should identify core problems with the remuneration system instead of evaluating the decree.

“The remuneration system should be put in the wider context of economic growth and per capita income. It must be deliberated by decision makers in the government and corporate CEOs, instead of human resource managers,” he said.

Indonesian Metal Workers Union (SPMI) chairman Said Iqbal warned that workers could no longer exercise patience when facing the unjust remuneration system and would continue their campaign to get humane and fair treatment.

Businesses have expressed opposition to the government’s plan to evaluate the remuneration system, saying that the country’s high unemployment rate should be taken into account.

“The government cannot force businesses to revise the remuneration system and [it] should leave it to the market mechanisms,” Apindo deputy chairman Hasanuddin Rahman said.

Hasanuddin argued that higher wages were only possible for workers who were strongly competent, while the majority of unskilled Indonesian workers only achieving an elementary or high school education.