TEMPO.CO, Bekasi – Labor unions in Bekasi, West Java have demanded a salary hike to Rp3.1 million, an increase by Rp750,000 or around 30 percent from the present Rp2.4 million per month.
The Metal Union Labor Federation of Bekasi’s head, Masrul Sambak, said the local wage council was currently mulling over their demand. “The final decision should be taken before November 18,” he told Tempo on Tuesday, September 23.
According to Masrul, the demanded figure came from the results of a recent survey on decent living living standard (KHL). The KHL components in the survey, he added, had been increased to 84 items from the initial 60.
In the survey, additional components such as expenses for shoes, belts, wallets, education and environment have been added to the KHL of a single worker.
Masrul said, however, that the 30 percent wage increase was not final and still subject to three-party talks involving the laborers, entrepreneurs and the government.
“If entrepreneurs object to the 30 percent increase, we can still negotiate on how much the can afford,” he said.
B. Woeryono, a spokesman the advocacy team of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) of Bekasi and West Java, said some 3,500 employers in Bekasi regency had approved of the workers’ demand.
“If it’s in line with regulations, why not?” he said, adding that the laborers were always clinging to the principles of capital intensive, technology intensive an labor intensive.
HAMLUDDIN
