Appeased by salary deal, workers suspend rallies

Workers opted to suspend planned mass rallies today to give the government time to make further changes to labor policies following the latest developments in deals to hike minimum wages in Bekasi and Tangerang.

Chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Prosperity Trade Unions (KSBSI) Mudhofir and the chairman of the All-Indonesian Workers’ Union Confederation (KSPSI) Mathias Tambing said separately on Wednesday in Jakarta that all labor unions had informed all workers at the grass-roots level to ease the mounting tension and give the government enough time to make further changes.

Mathias said he appreciated all agreements reached during the three-party renegotiations in the two regions to raise the minimum wages and revise the remuneration system.

“This is a good starting point to make further changes in the future.”

During the two recent renegotiations facilitated by Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Radjasa and the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, respectively, employers and unionists agreed to raise the minimum wage to Rp 1.8 million (US$203.4) from the governor-approved Rp 1.3 million mark in Bekasi, while the minimum wage in Tangerang and Serang would be set by the government later.

Both the government and employers bowed down to pressure from workers after thousands of workers went on strike, blockaded toll roads and staged rallies in front of the Presidential Palace, undermining the political stability in the capital city.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Employers’ Association (Apindo) agreed to revoke its lawsuit on the State Administrative Court (PTUN) against the gubernatorial decrees on minimum wages in West Java and Banten and both sides agreed to give top priority to bipartite negotiations in setting the minimum wage hikes, to comply with minimum wage hikes starting in 2013, provide exceptions on the minimum wage laws for certain companies and to support the criminalization of workers involved in violent industrial strikes.

An alliance of labor unions grouped under the so-called “Buruh Bergerak” (Labor Movement) recently announced it would launch bigger labor rallies in Jakarta and its outskirts on Thursday, in protest against the low minimum wage levels and the preference among businesses for outsourcing.

Mudhofir said workers and unionists were awaiting the government’s move to repair the labor situation by involving unionists in conducting a comprehensive evaluation of labor policies on remuneration and outsourcing. He said, “this is the last resort, for we have to win serious attention from the government and employers.”

“They have already learned that the worker action has caused losses not only to workers but mainly to investors and the government,” he said, adding that workers did not want to go to the streets, and would not if the government and employers paid enough attention to improving workers’ social welfare.

Chairman of the Indonesian Metal Workers Union (SPMI), Said Iqbal, said the government should take serious measures to repair the poor labor situation, or workers would go back to the streets.

“Do not lay the blame on workers and unions if there is labor unrest again in the near future and therefore the government and employers should be serious in conducting a comprehensive evaluation,” he said.

Following the agreements, the government has also announced a plan to evaluate the national remuneration system, including Ministerial Decree No. 17/2005 on 46 components composing the provincial minimum wages, and the outsourcing practice which workers have dubbed modern slavery.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar said during the opening ceremony of a national seminar on fair outsourcing on Wednesday that the government would revise the 2003 Labor Law in compliance with the recent verdict of the Constitutional Court that annulled chapters 64-66 of the law regulating outsourcing.

“The law revision needs to urgently implement a fair outsourcing system,” he said.