Jakarta – Most workers in industrial estates in Sumatra and Java have yet to benefit from higher monthly wages, despite the regional minimum wage increase which came into effect in January, 2008.
In Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, hundreds of workers staged a massive rally to protest their employers' reluctance to comply with the gubernatorial decree on minimum wages.
Protesters demanded the provincial authorities punish companies violating the decree, to enable workers to survive the soaring prices of basic commodities.
Anti-Slavery Labor Movement (GERAK) coordinator Tohonan Tampubolon said the government should punish violating companies to prevent employers from abusing workers' rights.
"Workers should have their monthly wages raised by ten percent as stipulated by the governor's decree, because the wage rise has already been approved by the labor unions, the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) and the government," he said in a meeting with provincial councillors Monday.
The provincial minimum wage was raised almost ten percent from Rp 805,000 to Rp 895,000 (US$95).
While employers made an annual adjustment to staff wages only three or four months before the regional minimum wage increase, the workers had still protested, Tohonan said. "This indicates poor industrial relations between workers and the management, who have preferred to exploit their workers," he said.
The chairman of the provincial legislative council's Commission D on social affairs, Abul Hasan, said the commission would hold a hearing with the governor and employers to discuss the immediate adjustment of the new minimum wage.
In Riau Islands, most workers on industrial estates in Batam and Bintan have not yet received a raise in their gross monthly wage, because employers had filed a lawsuit against the governor's decree which raised the minimum wage from Rp 860,000 to Rp 960,000 a month.
Liasna Sembiring, a manufacturing industry worker in Batam Center industrial estate, said she had not received a wage increase and, despite the increasing protests, the management had made excuses to postpone the raise.
Kenny, 29, another worker at Batamindo industrial estate, said he received only Rp 870,000 in his January pay check, "and there was no health, food or attendance allowance".
Chief of the provincial manpower and transmigration office Azman Taufik said he had delivered a circular asking all companies to keep their workers' rights in accordance with the decree.
He said he was confident the courts would not accept the employers' lawsuit because it was based on a tripartite decision. It was just the employers' trick to buy time, he said.
In Bandung, West Java, many employers were still in negotiations with their workers despite the governor ruling on the wage increase in the province.
Edi Ibrahim, chairman of a chapter of the Indonesian Workers Union (SPN), said the minimum wages set by the government were effective only for newly recruited workers and both employers and labor unions have to negotiate the hike for workers who have already been employed one year or more.
"Workers have demanded a hike by five percent and employers will have no reason to turn it down to help improve workers' purchasing power," he said.
The governor has issued a decree on the minimum wage increase to Rp 990,000 in Bekasi, Rp 860,000 in Bandung and Rp 570,000 in Banjar.