Bayu Marhaenjati & Dofa Fasila – The Jakarta administration may have approved the highest sectoral minimum wages ever, but hundreds of workers rallied with the Jakarta Labor Forum to push for more on Tuesday.
"We want [the] gubernatorial decree... on sectoral minimum wages to be revoked. We want it to be revoked or revised because we consider the wage as far from adequate," Herry Hendrawan, deputy secretary general of the Metal, Electronic and Machinery Workers Union (FSPLEM), told the demonstration at City Hall.
The decree, signed on Thursday but effective retroactively from Jan. 1, stipulates that the minimum wage in certain sectors be set between 6 percent and 30 percent higher than the standard minimum wage (UMP), Rp 1.52 million ($169) per month.
But Herry said the wage increase in neighboring Bekasi ranged from 20 percent to 30 percent. "This [rate in Jakarta] is much lower compared to Bekasi, even though Jakarta and Bekasi have the same industrial and sectoral growth rate while some Jakarta-based companies have branches in Bekasi," he said.
He went on to say that Governor Fauzi Bowo should have set a higher sectoral wage level. "There is a gap, it's quite wide and we think it's unrealistic. We hope the governor will consider it," he said.
Baris Silitonga, the protest coordinator, said the governor and Jakarta's labor agency head should step down if they insisted on setting the sectoral minimum wage level below industry production growth of 30 percent, because the laborers who contributed to the growth were being denied their rights.
"The governor and his men are not pro-labor," he said, adding that a much larger demonstration would soon take place.
The protestors ended their demonstration after Jakarta Manpower and Transmigration Agency head Deded Sukandar agreed to meet their representatives.
The wage hike in Bekasi came after thousands of workers from about 300 companies blocked the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road for several hours on Jan. 27. They were protesting a court ruling that favored the lawsuit filed by the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) against the wage increase.
Under the Jakarta decree, the highest sectoral wage, set at 30 percent above the UMP, will apply to the insurance, banking, and telecommunications sectors. The lowest sectoral wage, at 6 percent higher than UMP, will be in the tourism sector.
Deded said on Monday that the insurance, banking and telecommunications sectors contributed the most to the city's economy and therefore deserved to receive the highest increase in minimum monthly wages.
The second-highest sectoral wage, 13 percent higher than the UMP, applies to workers in the metal, electronics and machinery sector and those in the automotive sector.
Workers in the chemical, energy and mining sectors will see their minimum wages set at 11 percent higher than the standard minimum wage. The minimum wage in the food and drink sector will be 10 percent higher than UMP. It will be 8 percent higher in the pharmaceutical and health sector and 7 percent in the textile, garment and leather sector.
In the construction and public works sector, the minimum wage is set for a daily rate of between Rp 93,510 and Rp 143,221, depending on the workers' skills.
Deded said those wages only applied to workers with less than one year of service. For those with more working experience, the wage should be negotiated with their companies' management.