To make industrial relations and investment climate remain conducive and the country`s industries remain competitive the labor unions have agreed to make the incident (the demonstration) the first and the last.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government has found a settlement over the dispute on minimum wage for Bekasi district that has caused a huge demonstration and blockade of a key toll road to and from Jakarta recently.

"To make industrial relations and investment climate remain conducive and the country`s industries remain competitive the labor unions have agreed to make the incident (the demonstration) the first and the last," coordinating minister for economic affairs Hatta Rajasa said after a coordination meeting between central and regional government officials, labor unions and employers representatives here on Saturday.

The meeting was attended by manpower minister Muhaimin Iskandar, vice minister of trade Bayu Khirsnamurti, West Java governor Ahmad Heriyawan and representatives from the Association of Indonesian Employers (Apindo) and from SPSI, FSPMI, GSPMII and FSBDSI labor unions.

Hatta said the Apindo and labor unions in the meeting agreed to refer the decision to the government in this case to the coordinating minister for economic affairs and the minister of manpower.

After dialogs it was then agreed to set the minimum wage for the Bekasi district at Rp1,491,000 and for Group II at Rp1,715,000 and for Group I at Rp1,849,000.

"The agreement will be recommended by Bekasi district head to West Java governor for determination to replace the earlier decision of the West Java governor," he said.

Hatta said with the new agreement the West Java governor would drop his appeal to the recent ruling of the Bandung Administrative Court.

He said companies that are unable to meet the minimum wage as determined by the West Java governor would be allowed to apply for a suspension to the West Java governor.

"How hard it is we must settle cases through dialogs and not resort to actions that violate the law and disrupt security and public order," he said.

Hatta said any violation of laws would be dealt with according to laws.

He said discussion would also be held on Government Regulation Number 8 of 1981 on Wage Protection and Manpower Minister Regulation Number 17 of 2005 on stages of achieving needs for proper living.

"The discussion would be done based on fact findings and benchmark used to determine minimum wage so far," he said.

Apindo deputy chief Rahmat Gobel said the rise in the minimum wage must be accompanied by improvement in performance and efficiency to give a maximum impact on goods production.

"So worker unions must also give how much added value they could give to overcome cost problems that may happen," he said.

Rahmat hoped the demonstration recently would not recur because Cikarang is one of the locations for assembling finished products for exports.

"We must also understand the difficult market situation in the world right now. Factories in the area mostly produce goods for exports. If the situation persists and they enter the market there (export destination countries) they must reduce the price as buying power in those countries are down making exports to decline.

(H-YH)

Editor: Ella Syafputri
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