Agnes S. Jayakarna, Surabaya – Workers in East Java have demanded the governor involve them in determining the regional minimum wage (UMK).

They say their role is to ensure the wage meets the needs of workers' minimum daily expenses, which they claim has thus far been neglected by both the government and the companies they work for.

"We ask the local administration to invite us to help conduct the survey for the database, before deciding on the minimum wage, because past surveys have never been pro-worker," Jamaludin, East Java coordinator of the Alliance for the Defense of Laborers (ABM), said Sunday.

"They just conduct the survey with no understanding of the real conditions and real problems that workers face," he said, adding it had left workers disadvantaged in terms of accessing public healthcare and education. Jamaludin said that in conducting such a survey, the city administration only invited certain workers' representatives, most of them pro-management.

For the 2010 wage, he went on, the East Java administration, through its wage committee, had conducted the survey without involving workers.

To date, he said, the committee, which has the right to decide on the UMK, has never paid attention to the real condition of laborers.

Jamaludin said the ABM had drawn up a list of the key items that should be included in determining the UMK, which it had sent to the East Java governor for his perusal.

The union has also called on the governor to base the UMK regulation on regional factors. "Such a regulation will force businesses to face up to their responsibilities. We hope that by fixing the regulation, our lives will be better," Jamaludin said.

He added thousands of workers in Surabaya and surrounding areas would stage a rally Monday to demand their involvement in the UMK's decision-making process.

The protesters will flock to the East Java Manpower Office in Gayungsari, then head to the East Java Police headquarters on Jl. Achmad Yani, and finally end the rally at the governor's office on Jl. Indrapura.

Jamaludin said the rally would also call for greater transparency in conducting the survey from which the UMK decided, and punish companies failing to pay their workers accordingly.

Previously, a Surabaya court dropped a civil suit by the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) against the 2009 wage decree. Apindo had to bide by the decree and pay workers based on it. But many companies in the province fail to comply, citing the global economic crisis, Jamaludin said.