Hundreds of employees from the Jakarta Transport Company (PPD), who have yet to be paid five months in outstanding wages and holiday bonuses, went on strike and demonstrated at the PPD offices in East Jakarta on October 23.

“Ah how can we hope to have Lebaran holidays when holiday bonuses haven’t even been paid, let alone wages”, said driver L. Sipayung when speaking with Detik.com.

Although hundreds of drivers went on strike, PPD busses were still operated but without picking up any passengers. “The ones demonstrating are drivers who have taken a holiday along with the mechanics and management”, said Sipayung.

Around mid-day, a sit in and strike at the PPD offices degenerated into a scuffle with workers and some 50 police officers push and shoving each other.

This is the second time that there have been delays in wage payments. On the previous occasions, it was only after holding massive protests at the State Palace in April 2007 that the workers were finally paid outstanding wages.

Demonstrators also calling for a clarification on the Jamsostek social security program because employees are still having to pay for health treatment even though deductions for Jamsostek are already being taken from their wages. (Andi Saputra, Jakarta)

Yogyakarta workers demand minimum wage be increased

On the same day scores of workers from the Yogyakarta Workers Alliance (ABY) held an action in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta demanding wage increases saying that the provincial regional wage is lower that that of other parts of the country.

In a speech in front of the Yogyakarta Labour and Transmigration Office, ABY coordinator Tigan Solin said that Yogyakarta workers’ wages are extremely low, only 500,000 rupiah per month, while the cost of basic goods is increasingly out of control. “Even to fulfil their daily needs, many worker’s families are having to put themselves in debt”, he said.

According to Solin the wage increase is imperative and there are no grounds for the Yogyakarta government, the wage council and employers not to increase workers’ wages in 2008. “We demand that the Yogyakarta Wage Council increase the wages of Yogyakarta workers to 740,000 rupiah. A wage increases of as much as this is reasonable because we have already done the calculations ourselves”, he said.

The action was also enlivened with flags of the respective trade union federations taking part in the protest and posters and banners with messages such as “Yogyakarta wages should be higher than Klaten, Magelang and Purworejo”, “Remember, the Yogya regional minimum wages is the lowest in the world” and “Rp 740,000 is substantial for us”. (Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta)

[Abridged translation by James Balowski from two Detik.com reports.]