Indonesian government told to act against minimum-wage violators

House of Representatives speaker Puan Maharani said, “We have heard multiple reports of minimum wage violations recently, and the government must adopt firm measures against violating companies that deny offering minimum wage to their workers.”

Maharani called on the Ministry of Manpower to reinforce the dissemination of information on minimum wage and enhance the monitoring of companies, as several reports have indicated that sloppy monitoring has led to workers being denied the minimum wage.

Since the average minimum wage increase for 2022 is only 1%, the ministry should apply strict monitoring measures to ensure companies implement the wage adjustment to assist employees to fulfil their basic needs, she said.

Employers found violating the minimum wage requirement face a maximum of four years in prison and/or Rp400 million (US$38,091) fine, as per Law No. 11 of 2020 on Job Creation, she warned.

READ: Indonesia’s minimum wage to increase by at least 1.09% in 2022

The Job Creation Law has also nullified earlier regulations that allowed employers to suspend the minimum wage implementation process at their enterprise, she added.

“The government has abolished the discretion next year, notably as economic sectors are forecast to recover from the economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic next year,” she said, according to Antara News.