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akarta Manpower Agency head Deded Sukandar said on Monday that the agency had 40 allowed financially constrained companies to delay the implementation of the 2013 regional minimum wage.

According to the agency, at least 360 companies operating in Jakarta had sought approval from the city administration to postpone the implementation of the new minimum wage. “[The agency] has approved requests from 40 companies, mostly labor-intensive businesses, while the assessment of seven other companies is ongoing,” Deded told The Jakarta Post.

At the beginning of his tenure as governor, Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo raised the minimum wage to Rp 2.2 million (US$226.69) per month from Rp 1.5 million. The policy pleased labor unions but left businesspeople concerned that the 44 percent increase would affect their operational costs.

Hundreds of workers staged a protest against the postponement in front of City Hall on Monday.

The agency head said that the requests were approved because the businesses provided thousands of jobs. “If we didn’t approve the requests, thousands of workers would have been laid off,” he said.

Deded pointed out that requests from 290 companies had been rejected. “There were terms and conditions that had to be met, such as that company and employees should reach an agreement,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to Deded, requests from 17 companies had not yet been decided. “Each of the 17 companies has more than 1,000 laborers, therefore, the decision should be made by the governor as stipulated in a gubernatorial regulation,” he said.

The 40 companies whose requests have been approved by the Manpower Agency will have six months to delay the implementation of the new minimum wage.

“After six months, we will re-evaluate whether or not the companies are set to implement the new minimum wage. If not, we will give another six months,” Deded said.

Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said at City Hall that protests staged by workers who were unsatisfied with the implementation of the new minimum wage were triggered by mistrust of the companies by their employees.

“The wave of protests is because of the overly suspicious manner [of the workers]. They thought that we have been bribed by the companies,” Basuki said.

“The city administration has raised the minimum wage, we have signed the Rp 2.2 million. But, we can’t force the companies to immediately comply with the new wage and we don’t want to be pressed [to force the businesses],” he added.

According to the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), at least 500,000 workers in about 1,500 companies across the country might lose their jobs in March as the companies would no longer be able to pay their workers in accordance with the new minimum wages.

The affected workers mostly work in the food and beverage, tobacco, textile, footwear and leather, toys and furniture industries.

According to Apindo, a number of foreign companies particularly from South Korea and India, have left Indonesia and relocated their businesses to other Asian countries since the end of last year.