Lenny Tristia Tambun & Hotman Siregar – Thousands of workers staged a demonstration in front of City Hall to demand a monthly minimum wage increase of 68 percent in the Jakarta area and 5 percent nationwide.
Protestors said the minimum wage hike to Rp 3.7 million ($337) from Rp 2.2 million per month was in accordance with the real wage needs based on the latest government survey.
Muhamad Rusdi, secretary general of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Unions (KSPI), said a meeting by the Jakarta Wage Council in Ancol, North Jakarta, did not accommodate workers' interests.
"We, from the workers' forum, reject the result of the meeting held in Ancol by the wage council. The meeting didn't represent the workers' interests," Rusdi said on Tuesday.
Mohammad Toha, secretary general of the Workers Forum, said that criteria – accommodation, transportation, electricity, and water – set among 60 other items in the Reasonable Living Cost Index (KHL) for Jakarta were still too low.
"First of all the room rent. Before the subsidized fuel price was increased, it was still around Rp 500,000 per month. But surveys in the field show that it ranged between Rp 800 and Rp 900 thousand per month. Rent for tenement housing in South, East and Central Jakarta were the most expensive," Toha said.
He said the figure set in the KHL for accommodation was no longer relevant because it was short by between Rp 200,000 and Rp 300,000.
The cost for transportation as outlined in the KHL was set at Rp 7,000 for both ways using the TransJakarta bus as a standard. Workers going to and from work, though, were not only using TransJakarta but also minivans and motorcycle taxis. "That's why our calculation for transportation is Rp 20,000 per day," he said.
Toha also suggested that the benchmarks for the costs of electricity and water be raised because the latest levels were "no longer relevant."
Toha said he was filing a vote of no confidence in the meeting held between the Jakarta Wage Council, the Jakarta administration, entrepreneurs and workers' unions, claiming that the meeting had been arranged and the result had been decided in advance.
"Those who were invited were selected people. So, we consider the meeting as illegal because not all members of the wage council were invited. We strongly reject the result, whatever the result is because we consider it as a tool to legitimize cheap wage politics," Toha said.
In response to the workers' protests, Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama agreed that workers could not rely on their Rp 2 million monthly salary to live in the capital. That's why the Jakarta administration called on people who earned Rp 2 million per month not to live in Jakarta because they would not be able to have a decent life.
Basuki said the KHL was based on surveys in the field and that the figures for the 60 items also took into consideration Jakarta's productivity and economic growth.
Basuki said the Jakarta administration had no authority to increase the number of components to 122 in the KHL as it has happened in other countries, adding that such a decision was the responsibility of the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration.
However, Basuki promised that he would fight to increase the figure set for accommodation, transportation, electricity and water.
"We have decided to fight for the four components in the KHL survey so that it can be raised. So, this is not about feelings on whether it should increase by 50 percent. Let's make a survey. We can sit together, and we can see from the survey. Let's be scientific. A good organization should be scientific," Basuki said in a meeting with 20 people who represented their fellow workers.
Basuki said the administration was in the process of trying to purchase water operator PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) because the administration wanted to build a water piping system.
"One house needs about 10 cubic meters of water per month. Ten cubic meters for 5,500 units of apartments is equal to 55,000 cubi c meters per month. That's the calculation for water. Two cubic meters is not enough for a month. Yes, this component needs to be considered," he said.
Regarding the housing component, the city administration is aggressively building low-cost subsidized apartments. "We are preparing to build more subsidized apartments in the heart of the city," he said.
Basuki told workers that they should sit down with the administration to solve problems and said that he would ask the head of the Jakarta Manpower and Transmigration Office to give his views about the four KHL components.
"I don't want to see slavery in Jakarta. We will give an update in the next two weeks before the minimum wage is set. We will hold a meeting here," he said.
Prioyono, the head of Jakarta Manpower and Transmigration Office said his office has conducted KHL surveys as many as five times between March and July this year and that based on the surveys, they concluded that the KHL for Jakarta was Rp 1,915 million per month.
Priyono said they were planning to hold another survey in August but canceled it because of Ramadan. "We have conducted surveys up to five times. We canceled the sixth one because it was the fasting month. Now we have two more KHL surveys to carry out," he said.
Priyono said that the two surveys will be conducted this month and next month and it will cover the transportation and housing components, adding that adjustments are needed in both components following the subsidized fuel price hike.
"For transportation, there had been an increase in the fuel component. We don't know if it will affect the KHL. We will adjust it according to the survey. The same also applies for housing because it's related to electricity and water [tariffs]. The regulations are already there but we will make another survey. We will include it in this month's and October surveys," he said.