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New minimum wage to be set next week
Jakarta Post - October 22, 2014
Jakarta Manpower Agency head Priyono said on Tuesday that the KHL for Jakarta, which was based on 60 components in the surveys, had been set at Rp 2.32 million (US$193.28) per month.
"The KHL was set at Rp 2.32 million in October. In June it was Rp 2.31 million. We've held eight surveys since January," he said in Jakarta.
Priyono said the new minimum wage for 2015 would be set on Nov. 1 by the Jakarta tripartite wage committee representing the city administration, employers and workers.
"We hope the three parties agree that we have to synchronize our views on the matter and demand an acceptable minimum wage," he said.
The minimum wage for 2014 was set at Rp 2.4 million per month, representing a 10 percent increase from the previous year's minimum wage of Rp 2.2 million per month. The figure, however, was still lower than the Rp 3.7 million per month demanded by workers.
Muhammad Toha, one of unionists representing workers in the tripartite discussion, said workers and their unions expected that the minimum wage would be set at Rp 5 million per month, pointing out that determining the KHL should be based on 84 components, not the 60 components used at the national level.
"The city administration should make a bold move. It's the governor's domain. The governor should dare to consider 100 components for the KHL in Jakarta. The governor is authorized to set the minimum wage at 130 percent of the KHL," he said, adding, "I wonder whether or not the Jakarta governor has the guts to do so, or is he still afraid of employers?"
Toha also pointed out that the minimum wage set in 2013 for 2014 was unfair, saying that workers had never agreed to the figure.
"The survey was false. For example, a 900-gram box of Dancow milk was priced at Rp 50,000 to Rp 60,000 and in fact the 900-gram box can hardly be found in the market," he said. He also called on the wage committee to consider a number of other standard needs, including mobile communication costs.
"In Jakarta, we can't not use mobile phones, so it makes sense to include pulsa [phone credits]. Stuff like belts, towels, transportation, electricity and water bills are also acceptable [for being included]," he said.
Toha said the demand was reasonable. "The [Transjakarta] bus driver gets three times the minimum wage," he said.
He criticized the city administration for being "pro-capitalist". "The growth of the number of luxury cars in Jakarta reached 38 percent, housing 24 percent. The poor are getting poorer while the rich are getting richer. The distribution of wealth is unfair," he said.
He said, however, that the union representatives would attend the tripartite forum and discuss the matter, even though they were pessimistic. "We plan to just follow the flow. We hope the new governor [Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama] will bring a new approach," he said.
Meanwhile, Ahok said the minimum wage would be set based on the KHL. "I've told them, we can't set the minimum wage based on feeling, 'oh, I need a 30 percent increase', just like that. We increased it by 43 percent back then because of the KHL as well," he said, referring to when former governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo raised the minimum wage for 2013 to Rp 2.2 million from the Rp 1.5 million it was in November 2012, a month after his inauguration as Jakarta governor.
Ahok said, however, that the inflation rate should be included in the minimum wage hike. "It is unfair that we only consider the KHL, but not inflation assumptions," he said, adding that the percentage increase might be below other regions if the inflation rate in the capital was lower than that in other regions.
Ahok said the city administration had implemented compensation by providing welfare programs, including the Jakarta Smart Card education allowance and the Jakarta Health Card healthcare program.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/10/22/new-minimum-wage-be-set-next-week.html.
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