Jakarta – Hundreds of laborers with the Force Labor Alliance staged a rally at the Cakung Bonded Zone, North Jakarta, to demand the government scrap the current outsourcing and working-under-contract system.

"We demand that the system be scraped as it is unfair for laborers," alliance's coordinator Ilhamsyah told Antara newswire on Saturday. He explained the system affected wages and income and caused uncertainty among laborers about their employment period.

Under the current Labor Law, companies can outsource their workforce to reduce the need for human resource administration. Although some critics say the law was introduced to avoid paying severance pay and additional annual bonuses.

Business people argue the country's real sector needed to take measures to compete with emerging manufacturing hubs like China and Thailand. But laborers under the alliance said the system only provided benefits to companies.