Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Presidential hopeful Megawati Soekarnoputri signed Saturday a political contract with labor unions in Kerawang, West Java, vowing to phase out outsourcing, while President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attended Sunday in Jakarta the celebration of World Environment Day, riding a bicycle with the First Lady Ani Yudhoyono to the event.
Meanwhile, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, invited journalists to watch a new movie entitled 'Capres' (Calo president or presidential broker) at a mall in Jakarta, together with 150 members of his campaign team.
Megawati told the alliance of unions, which includes the Confederation of All-Indonesian Workers Union (KSPSI), that she would revise the 2003 Labor Law, and phase out outsourcing if she won the upcoming presidential election.
The political contract was signed during the commemoration of founding president Sukarno's 108th birthday in Rengasdengklok, Karawang, West Java on Saturday.
Megawati and the labor unions also agreed to make May Day a national holiday, despite previous opposition.
During the ceremony, workers said outsourcing had created job insecurity in the past six years.
"We are facing difficulties to get jobs, we have to pay to get jobs and our wages are frequently slashed for unspecified reasons.... We hope the Megawati-Prabowo pair will phase out outsourcing to give workers certainty," Kompas.com quoted a unionist as saying.
President Megawati had previously introduced the 2003 Labor Law which allowed companies to outsource tasks such as cleaning services, security and transportation to other companies for efficiency.
But many employers outsourced not only their ancillary tasks but also part of their core business activities to other companies to minimize labor costs.
Thousands of workers have been dismissed without any severance pay in the past six months following the global economic downturn whose negative impacts had maximum effect since January 2009.
On Sunday, Yudhoyono, First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, their second son Edhie Baskoro and several ministers rode bicycles to attend World Environment Day at the National Monument.
"I've been riding a bicycle since 2005 so this is not because of the election," the President said. He also encouraged reducing the use of vehicles to decrease emissions.
Later on Sunday, Vice President Jusuf Kalla told journalists he was open to criticism after watching a movie together with them. Kalla said he expected the public and media to continue criticizing the government so that it would not become authoritarian.
"There is no such thing as a bad criticism. Criticism is part of human rights, but should be limited so as not to violate other people's rights," he said.