Jakarta – Social study centers and an NGO focusing on labor rights have proposed the government focuses on reforming the bureaucratic system with its legal and "illegal" taxes rather than reducing labor rights.
Their research paper, titled Promoting Fair Labor Regulations in Indonesia: A Study and Advocacy of Improving Local Level Investment Environments in Tangerang and Pasuruan, stated that the legal and "illegal" tariffs and donations regulated by each region were a larger burden than fulfilling minimal labor rights.
"What everyone needs, employees and employers, are strict and certain regulations," said Akatiga Center for Social Analysis researcher Indrisari Tjandraningsih, before presenting the report in Jakarta last week.
She said it was urgent that the government managed and controlled the regions with consistent regulations in order to decrease employer expenditure on legal and illegal taxes.
"The workers are the ones most prone to being 'modified' because they are the lowest part of the system," said sociologist Hari Nugroho from the University of Indonesia's Sociology Department.
He then explained the two main expenditures which were dealt with by companies: market pressure costs and political costs.
"The situation is complex because although the government can demand an increase in the economic environment through its national regulations, the final decision is still up to the regions," said Others believe that the true conflict is not worker against employer, but worker-employer against the government.
"It is important for all workers and their employers to devise and share their strategies in facing the government," said Trade Union Rights Center director Surya Tjandra. "The labor fight used to be for the increase of labor prosperity, now it has become a fight for labor existence," said Surya.
The study suggested that the government apply strict regulations on substantial matters, such as the interpretation of tariffs, limitations, and legal sanctions.
It also requested the creation of a fair medium capable of accommodating the best interests of both employers and employees, adding that in the context of regional autonomy, the workers and their employers must form "strategic alliances" in order to respond to any issues which they felt to be a burden.
The study also reminded labor unions to strengthen their ranks and performance in order to create a base for workers which would have the same bargaining power as employers.
One of the most discussed and feared issues being revised in the 2003 Labor Law is the matter of outsourcing personnel.
The 2003 law limits outsourcing to three job categories: security, cleaning services and catering.
The revision however, which was formulated by the government and the Indonesian Employers Association (APINDO), now permits outsourced personnel to be placed in fields directly connected to the production line as well as staff positions.
The researchers said that this policy had come about because outsourced personnel, due to their short-term contract work system, could be paid below the minimal rate and would automatically have minimal relations with labor unions, thus creating a fragmentation in the labor forces.
They felt this revision was a further negative turn in a labor law which was already regarded as being inconsiderate of labor rights.