Government Urged to be More Sensitive to Labour Problems in Global Crisis

The Government should be more responsive to the possibility of worsening in labour affairs dueto the prolonged crisis, among others by giving stimulus to the business world and workers, such was the conclusions of two activists of labour unions.

Secretary General of DPN-SP TSK : Queue irony Buyer Crocs Shoes
Indra Munaswar, Secretary General of the National Leader of Textile, Garment and leather workers union [SP-TSK] in an interview with Business News Saturday after noon [25/4] said that the impact of crisis on tectile [TSK] industry was strongly felt, but unfortunately the government was not sensitive of the case. And yet hundred of thousands of workers might lose their job. As a matter of fact around 47,000 workers in the textile sector were dismissed due to the sluggish demand at home and abroad.

Ironically, amidst the low market demand for textile products and footwear, in Jakarta a couple of days ago people stood on a queue to buy Crocks brand of shoes at discount up to 70% it was feared that the products which originated from Europe and China were deliberately sent to Indonesia because those products were out of date aboard and offered as clearing sales in Indonesia.

The problem was, apart from one’s right to trade, the way to launch a sales campaign of imported product might harm the local footwear industry. Moreover this was the time when the market demand was close to bottom line. It would be better if the Government jacked up the domestic industry to meet the local demand.

The Government should also be more responsive to help the local industry not just by giving tax stimulus and electricity, but also by helping businesspeople to get a bridging fund for workers who were being dismissed due to crisis. Estimatedly hundreds of thousands of workers faced the threat of dismissal due to crisis; with the bench-mark of minimum pay and 5 years of service, the fund needed for compensation might come to trillions of Rupiahs.

Chairman of Metal, Electronics and Machines Labor Union [FSP-LEM]: Things are not as yet Disheartening
Harjono, Chairman of Metal, Electronics and Machineries Labour Union disclosed to Business News that the impact of crisis toward metal. Electronics and Machineries continued to blow up, but the situation was not too fearful. To refer to Labourers Insurance [Jamsostek] the number of incoming and outgoing workers were somehow still proportional. In the past three months for example the number of workers who resigned were around 5,000 people while those who were recruited were around 4,000 people.

What should be cautioned was certain businesspeople taking advantage of the present situation to adopt the outsourcing policy. The Government should be more responsive to problems faced by workers whose employment was based on outsourcing.