Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Around 2.8 million workers in 24 cities and on 80 industrial estates nationwide will go on strike in protest against outsourcing practices, a cheap labor policy and the planned gradual implementation of the national health care for all program.
Chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union (KSPI) Said Iqbal, said Wednesday's rally would be the first in a series of protests and it would only be a warm-up to remind relevant parties and the public of their seriousness.
He said most workers on industrial estates would not go to work so that their employers would see a massive loss in production.
"We are serious about holding strikes until the government listens to our demands. We are waiting for immediate solutions to the chronic issues," he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Workers in urban areas have been asked to stage demonstrations outside local legislature compounds to convey their demands to their representatives in provincial and regental legislatures. They were told not to stage mass rallies and long marches, he added.
Chairman of the Confederation of Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (KSBSI), Mudhofir, said that the strike was "unavoidable" as the government had breached the Sept. 15 deadline to review outsourcing practices and revise the remuneration system. "We have waited long enough for solutions, but nothing has been done," she said.
Said and Mudhofir confirmed that they had met with Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar and Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa at the latter's office on Tuesday, and they agreed to avoid any deadlocks in further discussions regarding outsourcing, cheap labor and social security issues.
They said they were still optimistic that the government would review rampant outsourcing malpractice and review the newly issued ministerial decree on wage components.
Both labor leaders also said that Muhaimin had agreed to review Ministerial Decree No. 13/2012 on Decent Pay to partly accommodate workers' aspirations on 80 wage components to create a win-win solution with employers.
Employers played down the national strike, which they said was no more than a bluff to scatter employers and relevant authorities, because according to their monitoring on Tuesday, all workers on the 80 industrial estates planned to work on Wednesday as usual.
"Besides closely monitoring the situation, we continue to coordinate with Yorris Raweyai's camp of the Confederation of All-Indonesian Workers Union, who have found no signs of a national strike tomorrow," said Sofjan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo).
Sofjan admitted that many small and mid-scale enterprises had misused the outsourcing system since the law allowed misinterpretations, but the government should repair it and take action against companies declining to comply with the law.
He warned that foreign investors would likely decline to invest in Indonesia or that existing investors would relocate their business to other countries because of the unconducive business climate and overburdening labor issues.
"Many companies have planned to replace their outsourced workers with machines for efficiency, but Apindo asked them to suspend those plans to help ease unemployment. Several Japanese businesspeople even plan to relocate to Myanmar," he said.
Asked about the cheap labor policy, Sofjan said that the government should make separate regulations on remuneration for big, mid-scale, and small businesses.