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Jakarta minimum wage should be highest: Workers
On alert: Police officers guard the gate of the Jakarta City Hall as thousands of laborers demonstrate to protest the new mechanism to decide the provincial minimum wage (UMP) on Thursday
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On alert: Police officers guard the gate of the Jakarta City Hall as thousands of laborers demonstrate to protest the new mechanism to decide the provincial minimum wage (UMP) on Thursday. (kompas.com/Kurnia Sari Aziza) (UMP) on Thursday. (kompas.com/Kurnia Sari Aziza)
O
span class="inline inline-center">On alert: Police officers guard the gate of the Jakarta City Hall as thousands of laborers demonstrate to protest the new mechanism to decide the provincial minimum wage (UMP) on Thursday. (kompas.com/Kurnia Sari Aziza)
Thousands of laborers
demonstrated on Thursday in front of City Hall on Jl. Medan Merdeka
Selatan, Central Jakarta, demanding that Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok'
Tjahaja Purnama make the Jakarta minimum wage (UPM) the highest of any
region in Java.
'We demand that the sectoral minimum wage in
Jakarta be the highest in Java,' said chair of the Jakarta chapter of
the All Indonesian Workers Union (SPSI) Yulianto during the
demonstration.
The protesters were members of the SPSI's
Federation of Metal, Electronic and Machine Workers Union (Jakarta FSP
LEM SPSI). They called on the Jakarta payment council to discuss the
sectoral minimum wage (UMSP), not just the provincial minimum wage (UMP)
in general.
Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama
previously decided on a 2016 Jakarta minimum wage of Rp 3.1 million
(US$226), lower than the Bekasi's planned Rp 3.3 million.
The
demonstrators also called on the Jakarta city administration to reject
the new formula for calculating the minimum wage in Government
Regulation No. 78/2015 on the payments, which is based solely on the
current fiscal year's inflation and gross domestic product (GDP) growth
rate.
Instead they demanded the government to return to Law No.
13 that also considers the basic cost of living in a given province
based on the prices of 84 commodities and daily needs in that province.
Some
500 police officers guarded the demonstration, which was held on the
third day of a national strike called by number of leaders of trade
unions that will end on Friday.
Ahok refused to comment on the
new government regulation concerning payment formulas. 'I don't want to
comment on it. They should ask the President,' he said. About the
demonstration, he only said: 'I would just like them to play good
dangdut songs.' (bbn)(+)
