Jakarta - A similar scene plays out every year on May Day: President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono goes out of town while thousands of workers rally in front of his office.

Yudhoyono visited ceramics factory PT Industri Keramik Kemenangan Jaya and drinking water company PT Tirta Investama in Bogor, West Java, on Sunday. "I have celebrated International Labor Day in the last five years with visits to companies," Yudhoyono said.

During his visit, the President pledged to continue boosting relations between workers, businessmen and the government, known as tripartite talks. "We hope [that with better relations], worker's welfare can be improved," he said.

Thousands of workers gathered at a rally in front of Merdeka Palace under the close watch of 14,000 police officers.

Representatives from a number of labor organizations threw coins and burned tires to highlight long-standing snags in the country's labor system. The police fired tear gas at protesters who burned tires. The rally caused heavy traffic congestion along major roads in Jakarta.

Protesters key demands include halting outsourcing of labor, a contract-based recruitment practice established by the 2003 Labor Law. Protesters also called on the government to set up a social security agency to implement the national social security system (SJSN).

The 2004 SJSN Law requires the government to implement healthcare, occupational accident, old-age risk, pension and death benefits programs. "Government should stop trying to impoverish workers," Rekson Silaban, president of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI), said.

Elsewhere in Greater Jakarta, hundreds of protesters took to the roads around Tangerang city after local police blocked their convoy headed to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

Thousands of workers in several provinces across the country also marked May Day with rallies.

In Batam, 5,000 workers gathered at the Batam Center in a peaceful protest demanding President Yudhoyono step down for failing to protect worker's rights in his seven years in office.

The head of the Batam branch of the metal workers union, Yoni Matoyo, said the government was inconsistent in its enforcement of labor laws. "Businesspeople exploit the system of outsourcing for their own benefit. The system is not humane," Yoni said.

In Medan, the North Sumatra Police deployed 4,952 officers to separate rallies held by activists and supporters of the local administration. Medan Regent Rahudman Harahap led a rally of 100 workers handing out gifts. Workers affiliated with the Unity of Labor Liberation Front staged a separated rally criticizing Rahudman's followers as betraying workers' struggle for better welfare.

In Yogyakarta, 100 journalists also staged a rally demanding media companies give journalists better wages and allow for the establishment of unions. "Journalists are also workers. As workers, journalists deserve a decent salary that will in turn influence the quality of their reports," Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) activist Bambang Muryanto said in a speech.

In Makassar, 1,000 workers called on the government to stop outsourcing practices and increase the salary of workers. "Workers in Indonesia, including in Makassar, are still to receive a fair deal. Many of our rights are ignored," rally coordinator Muhtar Guntor said.

[Fadli in Batam, Apriadi Gunawan in Medan and Andi Hajramurni in Makassar contributed to this story.]