Employers told to pay bonus on time

ID Nugroho , The Jakarta Post , Surabaya | Fri, 09/12/2008 10:51 AM | East Java

Authorities in East Java have ordered employers in the formal and informal sectors pay mandatory Idul Fitri allowances to allow workers and their families to celebrate the annual religious event.

Acting Governor Setia Purwoko on Monday said the annual allowance was mandatory. Employers should pay for it to maintain harmonious relations with their workers and avoid unrest.

East Java, especially Surabaya and its outskirts, is home to thousands of big corporations and labor-intensive companies employing millions of low-income workers, he said.

"We have disseminated circulars calling employers to comply with the 1994 ministerial decree that requires them to pay the allowance two weeks before the celebration," he said.

This year's Idul Fitri falls on October 1, 2008.

Provincial manpower and transmigration agency head Bahrudin expressed optimism that big corporations would pay the special bonus.

"We will check on small and medium-scale companies to ensure they comply with the decree."

The decree, he said, stipulates that workers who have been employed for at least a year deserve a bonus as high as their gross monthly salary.

Exception is given to companies having financial difficulties. They are allowed to skip paying the bonus, but only after submitting a request to the agency and after being audited by public accountants, Bahrudin said.

"Companies or employers violating the decree are subjects to a maximum three-month jail sentence or a Rp 50 million (US$5,250) fine according to the 2003 Labor Law," he added.

Separately, labor unions urged the provincial and regental administrations to open posts for decree violation complaints.

Confederation of Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (KSBSI) chairman Rekson Silaban asked the provincial government to remain tough on enforcing the decree because many employers usually used various tricks to avoid paying the allowance.

Among the tricks, he said, include entirely skipping the payment, suspending it after Idul Fitri or granting seasonal gifts.

"The government should make sure the allowance is paid two weeks before Idul Fitri and is as high as the workers' gross monthly salaries," he said.

Charging Workers Alliance (ABM) chairman Jamaluddin similarly expressed pessimism that employers would comply with the decree especially due to the poor global economic conditions thanks to soaring world fuel prices and their impact on the price of raw-materials and basic commodities.

The annual bonus, he said, has been a chronic problem year to year in the province, with 3,181 companies in industrial estates reportedly infringed last year.

The Surabaya Legal Aids Institute (LBH) and United Indonesian Labor Action (Kasbi) has opened a special post for complaints from workers regarding the special allowance this year. Received complaints will be sent to the local manpower and transmigration agency and then brought to the labor court.

HM Sampoerna public relations manager Yudi Rizard said the cigarette company, which employs more than 25,000 workers, has allocated in its annual budget a post for the special bonus. He ensured the bonus would be paid in time.

Maspion PR manager Soeharto concurred, saying that the escalating prices of fuel and raw materials were not a valid reason for his company to postpone the allowance payment.

Apart from the bonus, he said, his company had even prepared buses to transport its 23,000 workers to their home villages to celebrate Idul Fitri with their extended families.

"This is an expression of the corporation's care for the workers," he said.