JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia may review minimum wage and other labour rules, the president’s workplace said on Wednesday, after trade unions staged nation-wide protests against a recent walk in petrol costs that they say has come even as incomes stagnate.
President Joko Widodo raised subsidised fuel prices in Southeast Asia’s largest economy by 30% earlier this month to rein in a spiralling energy subsidy spending budget, sparking protests by workers and learners across the country.
The fuel price hike is set to accelerate inflation, which has already reached the highest since 2015 due to rising food prices.
Heru Budi Hartono, chief of the president’s office, on Mon met with employees protesting at the presidential palace in main Jakarta to discuss their own demands, according to the palace statement.
Workers have called for a big change in the formula utilized by the government to determine annual increases in minimal wage, and for modifications in our controversial Job Creation law, Heru mentioned in the statement, referring to controversial legislation approved in 2020 that unions said has been too pro-business.
Specialists are set to evaluation the workers’ needs on Tuesday, Heru said.
With growth plus inflation in 2021 still reeling through the pandemic, minimum wage rose by typically only 1. 09% in 2022 across the nation of 270 million people, media reported.
Hermanto Ahmad, secretary general of labour partnership KSPSI, was cited in the palace declaration as saying the fuel price walk will have a knock-on effect on prices associated with other necessities.
The KSPSI did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Another labour group which has been organising rallies, the particular KSPI, will keep on protesting until the authorities reverses the fuel price hike, the chairman Said Iqbal told Reuters upon Tuesday.
(Reporting by Stanley Widianto plus Ananda Teresia; Editing by Gayatri Suroyo and Kanupriya Kapoor)