DIY Workers Call for Revision of UMR and Addition of Services for Work and Family

Hundreds of workers held an action at Tugu Yogyakarta to commemorate Labor Day, Wednesday (1/5/2024).

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

Hundreds of workers in Yogyakarta staged a protest to voice the plight of workers at Tugu Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta City, Yogyakarta Special Region, on Wednesday (1/5/2024).

YOGYAKARTA, KOMPAS — In commemoration of Labor Day, Wednesday (1/5/2024), hundreds of workers in the Special Region of Yogyakarta held action calling for demands to improve their fate. Apart from asking for an increase in the regional minimum wage or UMR, workers also asked the government to improve their welfare by providing transportation services by bus as well as providing housing assistance and education costs for workers and their families.

Irsyad Ade Irawan, Coordinator of the Indonesian Workers' Working Council (MPBI), said that the revision of the minimum wage, transportation service assistance, housing assistance, and education costs are important in the lives of workers and must be considered by the government.

In this case, he said, the amount of the UMP DIY, for example, urgently needs to be revised because it is set at only IDR 2,125,897.65, far below the value of decent living needs (KHL) according to Labor survey results range from IDR 3.5 million to IDR 4 million per month.

"By looking at the amount of UMP and KHL according to our survey, our lives as laborers feel like carrying a heavy burden," he said when met during the rally and speeches at the monument of Tugu Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta City, on Wednesday (1/5/2024).

The demonstration commemorating Labor Day in the city of Yogyakarta was attended by at least 350 workers from more than six labor groups in DIY. The action started at Tugu Yogyakarta and continued on foot. Several figures gave speeches in front of the DIY Provincial Assembly building, Kepatihan complex, DIY Provincial Government Office, and finally at the Zero Point in front of the Yogyakarta Post Office.

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Assistance for educational costs or scholarships, according to him, are also in great need because the cost of schooling is becoming more expensive and unaffordable.

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

Hundreds of workers lifted up signs, sheets of paper, and cardboard containing various demands in a demonstration commemorating Labor Day at Tugu Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta City, on Wednesday (1/5/2024).

As for the transportation services needed by workers, according to him, it can be realized by providing Trans Jogja buses with special routes to the factory and industrial areas where the workers work. To further alleviate the burden, it is expected that the government will also provide special discounts for bus tickets.

To the new government which will later be led by Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka, Irsyad hopes that the government will immediately realize agrarian reform and pass the Law (UU) on the Protection of Domestic Workers and the Law on the Welfare of Mothers and Children. The new government is also expected to revoke the Job Creation Law and eliminate the contract work system and outsourcing recruitment system.

Jatmiko from the Indonesian Workers Union of DIY stated that the Regional Minimum Wage (UMP) and Provincial Minimum Wage (UMK) in all cities/districts in DIY need to be immediately revised because the current and actual wages received by workers make it difficult for them to meet their daily needs.

"The amount of wages received makes it impossible for laborers to buy a house and fail to get married. We, the workers, become a group that is threatened with homelessness and loveless.," he said.

The labor action was also followed by a number of elements of students. Ogan from the Solidarity for the Marginalized People and Campus Struggle (Sopink) at Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta stated that he and 15 of his colleagues from Sopink were moved to participate in the action because, for them, workers' welfare is a major issue that deserves shared attention.

The high wages they receive mean that workers cannot buy a house and fail to get married.

The fate of workers is also part of the students' concerns because some of them are also the children of workers.

KOMPAS/REGINA RUKMORINI

Various demands were voiced by workers along the streets in the Malioboro area, Yogyakarta City, Yogyakarta Special Region on Wednesday (1/5/2024). In this action, regional minimum wages became an urgent matter to be heard and revised by the government.

Ogan said that the fate of workers also disturbed his personal consciousness because he knew that workers' wages were very low.

"I truly cannot understand, on average labor wages are only around Rp 2 million, while my single tuition fee alone reached Rp 7 million," she said.

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Meanwhile, the Secretary of the DIY Regional Government, Beny Suharsono, stated that the DIY Minimum Wage for 2024 has been set to increase by 7.27 percent. This percentage increase has been determined to adjust to the rationalization of inflation figures from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

Beny said that the DIY Wage Council has set the highest index coefficient at 0.3. In addition, based on the inflation rate released by BPS at 3.3%, all parties agreed with the academic view resulting in an inflation rate of 5.7%. Referring to this, the increase in UMP is considered to be significant, ideal, and truly based on the inflation perceived by workers.