Employers must observe the minimum wage requirement while deciding their employees' salary, lest they would be penalized
Jakarta (ANTARA) - House of Representatives (DPR RI) speaker Puan Maharani has called on the government to strictly monitor the minimum wage implementation process and take firm action against violators.

"We have heard multiple reports of minimum wage violations recently, and the government must adopt firm measures against violating companies that deny offering minimum wage to their workers," Maharani stated in Jakarta on Tuesday.

The speaker urged the Ministry of Manpower to bolster the dissemination of minimum wage information and intensify monitoring of companies, as several reports indicated that they had exploited lax authority monitoring to deny minimum wage to the workers.

"Labor supervisory officers must be increased and their competence enhanced to handle many issues that pitched the workers against their employers," the speaker remarked.

As the average minimum wage increase for 2022 is only at one percent, the authority should apply strict monitoring measures to ensure companies implement the wage adjustment to assist employees to fulfil their basic needs, she stated.

"We must be grateful, as we could increase the minimum wage next year after not increasing it this year, and we must ensure employers will abide by the minimum wage hike to help employees fulfil their basic needs," Maharani remarked.

The DPR speaker warned that employers found violating the minimum wage requirement would face a maximum of four years in prison and/or Rp400 million (around US$28 thousand) fine, as per Law No. 11 of 2020 on Job Creation.

"Employers must observe the minimum wage requirement while deciding their employees' salary, lest they would be penalized," Maharani stated.

The Job Creation Law also nullified earlier regulations that allowed employers to suspend the minimum wage implementation process at their enterprise, she added.

"The government has abolished the discretion next year, notably as economic sectors are forecast to recover from the economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic next year," the speaker noted.

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Translator: Imam B, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Sri Haryati
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