"I have received (the recommendation) and signed it. The UMP rate approved by the Jakarta Remuneration Council for 2014 is Rp2.441 million," Jokowi said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo said he has signed a monthly provincial minimum wage (UMP) order of Rp2.441 million for industrial workers in Jakarta on the basis of the Jakarta Remuneration Council`s recommendations.

"I have received (the recommendation) and signed it. The UMP rate approved by the Jakarta Remuneration Council for 2014 is Rp2.441 million," Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, said here on Friday.

He said he had received two different recommendations. The first was proposed by employers, with a monthly wage of Rp2.299 based on the decent living cost (KHL) formulated recently, and the second one of Rp2.441 was proposed by the Jakarta Remuneration Council.

"The council`s proposal was based on the results of its meetings. The decision was made in the absence of workers` representatives who did not meet the invitation," the Jakarta governor said.

Jokowi hoped that both sides would accept the recommendation.

"We raised the UMP by 50 percent last year, and there were protests. All decisions have consequences," he said, adding, "I have made a decision now that was recommended by the remuneration council based on its accelerated meetings."

The Jakarta Remuneration Council made two recommendations last Thursday. The first was for Rp2.299 million, which was similar to the KHL, and the second was for Rp2.441 million, proposed by the government.

Head of Jakarta`s Manpower and Transmigration Service Priyono said the government`s recommendation was based on reviews of the employers` proposal and the workers` demands.

The formulation was based on the 2013 KHL value plus an estimate of economic growth of 6.15 percent in 2014.

The governor said the workers` representatives should not reject the formula.

"They cannot say, `We reject it because we did not take part in the meeting.` They were invited, but they did not come," he said.

Several industrial zones in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi were paralyzed on Thursday because of labor strikes.

"Striking workers have already paralyzed the Pulogadung industrial zone (Jakarta) as of this morning," the secretary general of the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Unions (KSPI), Muhammad Rusdi, said.

Rusdi noted that the striking workers in Jakarta are demanding a wage increase to Rp3.7 million, the revocation of Presidential Instruction Number 9/2013, the eradication of the outsourcing system, and the implementation of health insurance by 2014.

The workers, who will remain on strike until Nov. 1, have visited several factories to demand that the labor force there join the strike.

"The workers asked them to join the demonstration," remarked one of the workers in Tangerang, Mirda.

Demonstrations erupted in Tangerang, Banten, particularly around industrial areas.

Manpower minister Muhaimin Iskandar had called on the workers to refrain from creating traffic jams and disturbing the peace during their activities and appealed to them to express their demands through various forums such as the bipartite forum or the remuneration board.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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