INDONESIA: Workers reject labour laws

Protests continue in numerous cities against proposed revisions to the 2003 labour law, which will remove the obligation of employers to provide protection, welfare and health benefits to workers and will dramatically reduce severance pay. On March 28, more than 5000 workers in Sukoharjo, Central Java, demonstrated against the draft law. The same day, hundreds of workers in Gresik, West Java, also protested. A demonstration by thousands of workers in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta on March 29 against the revisions called on the government to resign. Yogyakarta Worker Alliance secretary-general Tigansolin told the rally: "We don't want workers' labour to just be exploited after which they are discarded and tossed aside. We have the right to demand wage increases as well as benefits and health allowances." The protest also demanded a 100% wage increase, an end to mass dismissals and the dissolution of foreign donor institutions. Signs displayed at an earlier protest of 4000 workers in Bandung, West Java, on March 20, described the draft labour law as "the mass murder of workers".

From Green Left Weekly, April 12, 2006.

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From GLW issue 664