Jakarta – The Confederation of Indonesian Workers Unions (KSPI) has urged the government not to relax requirements for Chinese investors who want to use their own unskilled workers for projects in Indonesia because such a policy would threaten local workers.

KSPI chairman Said Iqbal said the government had let Chinese investors bring thousands of unskilled workers to the nation, but had not shown the same flexibility to other foreign investors who had long been running businesses in Indonesia.

"We want the government to prevent Chinese investors from taking unskilled workers and protect the existing upstream industry in Indonesia," Iqbal said on Monday as quoted by Tempo.co.

With the recent layoffs at a number of foreign companies in Indonesia, including Japan's electronic manufacturer PT Toshiba, Iqbal said the reason was not the high demand for increased wages from workers, but was instead due to the weakening of people's purchasing power that created implications for the drastic slump of electronic product sales.

The union urged the government to revoke articles of Government Regulation (PP) No. 78/2015, which stipulates that the minimum wage shall be increased by a total percentage achieved by adding percentage inflation and percentage growth of gross domestic product (GDP) each fiscal year.

"We want the revocation of the regulation and to be given a decent wage, so that people's purchasing power will increase," Iqbal said.

Citing a report published by the International Labor Organization (ILO), Iqbal said that the average Indonesian wage was considered low among Southeast Asia countries.

The average Indonesian worker's wage is US$170 per month, lower than the Vietnamese average wage of $187 per month, Malaysia and Thailand's average $390 per month and far from Singapore's average, which reaches $3,000 per month. (afr/bbn)(+)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/02/09/trade-union-rejects-chinese-unskilled-workers.html