INDONESIA: New Minimum Wage Policy Earns Praise From Labor

Posted by Asia Views | Nov 24, 2022 | 0 |

JakartaPost-Nov 23, 2022

The government has issued new rules for determining minimum wages as labor and business have failed to find common ground. In a virtual press briefing on Saturday, Manpower Minister Ida Fauziyah announced Ministerial Regulation No. 18/2022, which introduces a new formula for setting minimum wages for 2023. In the absence of this regulation, Government Regulation (PP) No. 36/2021 on wages, which is based on the Job Creation Law passed in 2020, would have been the basis for setting next year’s minimum pay. Through the new ministerial regulation, the government caps the rate at which governors can hike minimum wages for next year at a maximum of 10 percent, and it gives governors, mayors and regents a few more days to announce the minimum wages for their respective regions. Under PP 36/2021, the announcements were due last Monday. Mayors and regents can set wages above, but not below the provincial minimum announced by governors. Indonesian businesses, particularly those represented by the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), have been calling for the government to stick with the formula of PP 36/2021 for determining minimum wage hikes. Labor unions, on the other hand, had challenged PP 36/2021 as they said it would result in a lower average minimum wage increase than PP No. 78/2015, which was the basic regulation before the issuance of PP 36/2021. “The minimum wage formulas in PP 36/2021 do not accommodate the socioeconomic impact [of inflation], as the minimum wage has yet to catch up with the price increases for goods,” Ida said when introducing the regulation. Under the new formula, next year’s minimum wage is the current year’s minimum wage plus an adjustment value. The adjustment value, meanwhile, equals regional inflation plus regional economic growth, but with the latter multiplied by a variable termed “alpha” that can range between 0.1 and 0.3, hence reducing the total. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/business/2022/11/23/new-minimum-wage-policy-earns-praise-from-labor.html.

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

INDONESIA: New Minimum Wage Policy Earns Praise From Labor

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