Jakarta (Antara Bali) - The Confederation of Indonesian Worker's Union (KSPI) has demanded a 30 percent increase in the minimum wage for 2015.
"If not, labourers will suffer as increases will remain below the standard," said President of KSPI Said Iqbal in Jakarta, Friday.
In his opinion, the minimum wage in Indonesia had fallen behind other countries in South East Asia, such as Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia, which remain above Rp3,2 million.
He said there were problems that caused the minimum wage in Indonesia to remain lower, such as the standard cost of living (KHL) and its determination.
In 2015, KSPI will add to KHL's components, increasing from 60 to 84 items, by revising the Decree of Manpower and Transmigration Ministri (Permenakertrans) No 13/2012 on the components in the KHL.
"The number of the components surveyed as a determination of KHL was 60 items and it's far behind the basic need of a single worker, at least there are 24 more," he said.
After taking the survey on the KHL, KSPI wished to use projections based upon next years inflation to estimate the standard of living.
To catch up with other countries, the government should not set the minimum wage below the KHL recommendation, adding for the projection, inflation and economic growth.
"The government should also tighten supervision of suspension on wages to compensate for the deferred wage or just abolish the deferred wage if there is no protection of compensation," he added.
KSPI also wanted the government to revoke the regulation on low wage policy Permenakertrans 7/2013, President Instruction 9/2013, on the minimum wage policy to improve the welfare of workers.
"The more important thing is with the rise of the minimum wage to allow Indonesia to compete in the ASEAN Economic Community 2015," he said. (WDY)
Translating and Editing by Natisha Andarningtyas
