TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Indonesia, Vietnam discuss minimum wage for workers
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Closer ties: Vice President Jusuf Kalla (right) talks to Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh (left) during their bilateral meeting in Tokyo, Japan, on June 12. (JP/Marguerite Afra Sapiie)
V
ice President Jusuf Kalla and Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh discussed the minimum wage for workers in Southeast Asia and the fate of Vietnamese fishermen in Indonesia during their bilateral meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday.
In the meeting, Kalla and Binh agreed to coordinate and hold further discussions on the minimum wage for industrial workers in the region.
Kalla said establishing a minimum wage was important to ensure better welfare for workers in neighboring countries that are investment destinations for labor-intensive industries, such as Vietnam.
“We want to cooperate to ensure that workers [in the region] are not continuously pressed upon by the industry,” Kalla said on Tuesday. “We are also talking about establishing a minimum wage in ASEAN.”
Kalla said industrial competition should not forsake the welfare of workers, whose salary was relatively low due to intense competition in labor-intensive industries.
Vietnam is among Indonesia’s major competitors in Southeast Asia for investment in labor-intensive industries. In 2015, Indonesia’s monthly average minimum wage stood at US$123, higher than Vietnam at $118.
Kalla said the collaboration was still at an early stage. Binh also requested Jakarta’s attention over Vietnamese fishermen being detained by Indonesian authorities for illegally fishing in Indonesian waters, he added.
“We will process them through the legal system and I said [to Binh] that we will immediately conclude it so that our bilateral relations with Vietnam will not be disrupted." (ebf)
