Jauh Hari Wawan S, Yogyakarta – Protesters who said they represent workers from across the Central Java province of Yogyakarta demonstrated at the Yogyakarta Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) today calling for the cancelation of the Draft Omnibus Law on Job Creation which they said will harm workers.
Yogyakarta All Indonesia Trade Union Confederation (KSPSI) Chairperson Kirnadi said that the draft law has not been transparent and that workers have not been involved in formulating the law.
“We consider this legislation to be flawed because it fails to meet the criteria of openness. The draft law has never been conveyed to the public, workers have only been given an outline”, said Kirnadi at the Yogyakarta DPRD building on Jl Malioboro on Wednesday February 12.
Kirnadi said that the Draft Omnibus Law will harm workers. “Why are we present here to discuss the Omnibus Law. As we have conveyed, we are convinced that contents of the draft law will harm us workers in Indonesia”, he said.
According to Kirnadi, there are several things which are of concern to workers. These include restricting social welfare, minimum wages, the expansion of contract labour into various new sectors and the extension of outsourcing.
“This (draft law) will be an obstacle to increasing labour welfare in Indonesia. This is why we explicitly reject the draft law. Aside from this the law is flawed in formal terms because it has never been socialised to workers. There is not one page in the academic text written by the government which provides a benchmark of whether this law is good or not”, he asserted.
Yogyakarta DPRD Deputy Speaker Huda Tri Yudiana meanwhile confirmed that he would follow up on the demands taken up during the demonstration and claimed they would coordinate with the related government office.
“On the main points, issues which are not ideal which are experienced by workers in Yogyakarta. For example companies that [don’t] pay the minimum wage. We will follow this up and summon the labour office for coordination”, said Yudiana.
Yudiana said that up until now the DPRD has yet to receive a draft of the Omnibus Law and they plan to seek information from the central government.
“Up until now we have yet to obtain any official information about the contents of the Omnibus Law. We will enquire directly with Jakarta about this information”, he said. (ams/sip)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Massa Pekerja Yogya Demo Tolak Omnibus Law Cipta Kerja di DPRD”.]
