General Chairman of the Central Executive Federation of Textile, Clothing and Leather Workers Unions - All-Indonesian Workers Union (FSP TSK SPSI) Roy Jinto said workers in West Java (West Java) agreed to conduct regional and national strikes if the demand for a minimum wage of 10 percent in 2022 was not met. accepted by the government. "We will strike before the determination of the minimum wage in 2022 and December 2022, if the Constitutional Court (MK) does not cancel the Job Creation Law, which in our opinion is contrary to the 1945 Constitution and Law 12 of 2011," Roy said in a written message, Wednesday (17/11). ).

Roy said the workers demanded the government to set the 2022 minimum wage not to use the calculation formula for Government Regulation (PP) 36 No 2021 regarding Wages because the Job Creation Law, which is the link to the regulation, is still being formally and materially tested at the Constitutional Court.

"And we are waiting for the trial schedule to read the verdict, because PP 36/2021 is a derivative rule of the Job Creation Law and the law is being tested, so the government must respect the legal process in the Constitutional Court by delaying the implementation of the Job Creation Law, including its derivative regulations until the Constitutional Court's decision is issued. both formally and materially," said Roy.

According to Roy, the determination of the minimum wage based on PP 36/2021 has eliminated the rights of workers through the wage council to negotiate because all data has been decided by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). So, he continued, the function of the wage council only legitimizes and approves of it.

In fact, according to Roy, this step is contrary to the ILO Convention 98 on the right to collective bargaining and also Presidential Decree (Kepres) 107/2004 concerning the Wage Council. In PP 36/2021, it requires economic growth or district/city inflation in the last three years.

Meanwhile, not all districts/cities calculate and release the required economic growth. Roy said that workers in districts/cities in West Java had tried to request the data from the district/city BPS.

However, the BPS stated that it did not have the required data.

"Then suddenly the RI Minister of Manpower Circular Letter (SE) appeared on November 9, 2021 regarding data on economic growth throughout Indonesia. We highly doubt the data submitted by the Minister of Manpower. In the history of wages, this is the first time in Indonesia in determining wages The minimum is set regarding the upper and lower thresholds," said Roy.

Roy added that if the threshold and lower threshold were applied, he ensured that labor wages would not increase in the next few years. Even if it goes up, he continued, it will only be around Rp. 18 thousand rupiah.

"Therefore, the trade unions at the national and regional levels agreed to conduct a regional strike and a national strike with demands," said Roy.