UNAIR NEWS – Celebrating International Labor Day 2022 or more familiarly known as May Day 2022, many workers unions/ laborers unions held a strike at the Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) nationally and East Java Province Regional House of Representatives Building.
Legal lecturer of Bankruptcy and Labor Law of Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR), Dr M Hadi Subhan SH MH CN, explained that the strike is not new and has been carried out annually. However, this time, it brought more demands than a similar strike in the previous years.
“This is because the current labor movement does not focus on the fight for worker’s interests but is moving to political substances. Other than many labor dynamics, such as Job Creation Law and post-pandemic situation,” mentioned Hadi on Sunday, May 22, 2022.
18 demands
Said Iqbal, President of the Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI), said, quoted from kompascom, there are 18 demands for this May Day strike. These are the demands brought up on the May Day 2022 nationally:
• Reject Omnibus Law Job Creation Law
• Lower prices of staple commodities (cooking oil, meat, flour, egg, etc.), fuel, and gas
• Enact PPRT Billdraft, refuse PPP Law revision, refuse SP/ SB Law revision
• Reject cheap wages
• Remove outsourcing
• Reject Value Added tax increase
• Enact RPP of ABK and Migrant Workers Protection
• Reject the reduction of PBI Health Insurance participants
• Realize food sovereignty and agrarian reform
• Stop farmers criminalization
• Cheap tuition fees and free compulsory education for 15 years
• Appoint teachers and honorary personnel as civil servants
• Empowerment of the informal sector
• Ratification of ILO Conversion No. 190 on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work
• Online Motorcycle Driver is a worker, not a partner whose working relationship is unclear
• Conduct February 14, 2024 elections on time, in an honest and just manner without money politics
• Equitable redistribution of wealth by adding social security programs (food security, housing, unemployment, education, and clean water)
• There can be no starving people in a rich country.
9 local East Java demands
Besides national demands, below are the demands in May Day 2022 Labor Demonstration regionally in East Java:
– Revision of East Java Governor’s Decree Number 188/803/KPTS/013/2021 concerning Minimum Wage of Regencies/ Cities in East Java in 2022. Increase City Minimum Wage in East Java in 2022 by 10% without using Government Regulation formulation No. 36/2021 on Wage
– Set a Sectoral Minimum Wage (UMSK) in East Java in 2022 as proposed by the Regent / Mayor and the results of the East Java Provincial Wage Board meeting of workers unions/trade unions
– Sanction entrepreneurs who do not pay religious holiday allowances (THR) in 2022 in the form of termination of production equipment to freeze business activities
– Demand the Governor of East Java Province and the Chairman of the East Java Provincial DPRD to keep their promise to make an East Java Regional Regulation on the Severance Guarantee System
– Implement Presidential Instruction No. 1 of 2022 on Optimizing the Implementation of the National Health Insurance Program
– Allocate budgets from East Java APBD for financing Social Security Administrator for Health (BPJS) contributions in the PBPU / BP Class 3 segment registered by the East Java Provincial Government
– Create an East Java Governor Regulation that requires employers that at the time of obtaining certain public services, it is mandatory to complete the proof of active participation of BPJS and proof of payment of the last dues
– Provide administrative sanctions, limited certain public services, to employers who do not register their workers to BPJS
– Provide imprisonment and fines for employers in arrears and/or do not pay BPJS Health dues or BPJS Employment dues as mandated by Article 19 paragraph (1) and (2) jo Article 55 of Law No. 24 of 2011 concerning BPJS.
Seemed Political
There are some less realistic demands because it was irrelevant to the direct interests of workers. “From the demands presented, there are some irrelevant demands with the interests of workers, such as on election postponing, sovereignty, online drivers became workers, and agrarian reform,” said Hadi.
Hadi argued that unrealistic demands seemed more political. “It means that workers’ fight is starting to move into political fields. If these signs are correct, then they will weaken labor’s movement and will become bias,” he explained.
Author: Tristania Faisa Adam
Editor: Binti Q Masruroh
