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Jakarta’s New Minimum Wages Fail to Satisfy Labor Union
Bayu Marhaenjati & Dofa Fasila | February 15, 2012

Hundreds of workers take part in a demonstration organized by the Jakarta Labor Forum in the capital. Workers were agitating for an equal minimum-wage increase to their fellow workers in Bekasi. (Antara Photo) Hundreds of workers take part in a demonstration organized by the Jakarta Labor Forum in the capital. Workers were agitating for an equal minimum-wage increase to their fellow workers in Bekasi. (Antara Photo)
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Valkyrie
6:23am Feb 16, 2012

Dems are pressing te panic buttons to try regain some 'face' They're down to 13% and still sliding. I hope it hits rock bottom soon!

Rieban
9:45pm Feb 15, 2012

You can block as many toll roads as you want. you only end up making it worse for YOURSELF. But you have your rights. Right to live a decent life..

Minimum wages today are a joke. And it will still be a joke in near future unless someone wakes up.


aditya_pratama
5:23pm Feb 15, 2012

The government should stop being a wimp and caving in to these unions' demand. A lawsuit is filed by Apindo and the court decided to rule in favor of them. The unions don't like it, block the toll road, government cave in to their demands, only made them promise they won't block any more toll roads.

What's there to guarantee they won't disrupt the toll roads anymore? Other unions, like the one in Tangerang, have followed suit with the bekasi union, knowing that when they threatened to block the toll roads, the government will give in to their demands.

IMO the government is setting up a dangerous precedent. The minimum wage is not to the union's liking? Let's block some toll roads.

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The Jakarta administration may have approved the highest sectoral minimum wages ever, but hundreds of workers rallied with the Jakarta Labor Forum to push for more on Tuesday.

“We want [the] gubernatorial decree ... on sectoral minimum wages to be revoked. We want it to be revoked or revised because we consider the wage as far from adequate,” Herry Hendrawan, deputy secretary general of the Metal, Electronic and Machinery Workers Union (FSPLEM), told the demonstration at City Hall.

The decree, signed on Thursday but effective retroactively from Jan. 1, stipulates that the minimum wage in certain sectors be set between 6 percent and 30 percent higher than the standard minimum wage (UMP), Rp 1.52 million ($169) per month.

But Herry said the wage increase in neighboring Bekasi ranged from 20 percent to 30 percent. “This [rate in Jakarta] is much lower compared to Bekasi, even though Jakarta and Bekasi have the same industrial and sectoral growth rate while some Jakarta-based companies have branches in Bekasi,” he said.

He went on to say that Governor Fauzi Bowo should have set a higher sectoral wage level.

“There is a gap, it’s quite wide and we think it’s unrealistic. We hope the governor will consider it,” he said.

Baris Silitonga, the protest coordinator, said the governor and Jakarta’s labor agency head should step down if they insisted on setting the sectoral minimum wage level below industry production growth of 30 percent, because the laborers who contributed to the growth were being denied their rights.

“The governor and his men are not pro-labor,” he said, adding that a much larger demonstration would soon take place.

The protestors ended their demonstration after Jakarta Manpower and Transmigration Agency head Deded Sukandar agreed to meet their representatives.

The wage hike in Bekasi came after thousands of workers from about 300 companies blocked the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road for several hours on Jan. 27. They were protesting a court ruling that favored the lawsuit filed by the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) against the wage increase.

Under the Jakarta decree, the highest sectoral wage, set at 30 percent above the UMP, will apply to the insurance, banking, and telecommunications sectors. The lowest sectoral wage, at 6 percent higher than UMP, will be in the tourism sector.

Deded said on Monday that the insurance, banking and telecommunications sectors contributed the most to the city’s economy and therefore deserved to receive the highest increase in minimum monthly wages.

The second-highest sectoral wage, 13 percent higher than the UMP, applies to workers in the metal, electronics and machinery sector and those in the automotive sector.

Workers in the chemical, energy and mining sectors will see their minimum wages set at 11 percent higher than the standard minimum wage. The minimum wage in the food and drink sector will be 10 percent higher than UMP. It will be 8 percent higher in the pharmaceutical and health sector and 7 percent in the textile, garment and leather sector.

In the construction and public works sector, the minimum wage is set for a daily rate of between Rp 93,510 and Rp 143,221, depending on the workers’ skills.

Deded said those wages only applied to workers with less than one year of service. For those with more working experience, the wage should be negotiated with their companies’ management.