Bekasi Regency Government Geruduk Workers, Guard The First Meeting Of The Council To Determine Wages In 2026

JAKARTA - Masses of workers who are members of dozens of trade unions from various points in industrial areas in Bekasi Regency, West Java, 'extend' the Bekasi Regency Government office complex building to fight for work rights and decent living.

The arrival of the mass of workers carried the main mission of overseeing the inaugural trial of the Bekasi Regency Wage Council to determine the amount of wages in 2026 through peaceful demonstrations and hearings with the relevant government authorities.

"This is the beginning of the struggle in determining wages for 2026 as well as conveying the news that the labor situation in Indonesia still has to be fought for because workers have not yet received decent work and decent living," said the Coordinator of the Alliance of Workers and People's Association (Silver) as well as the Chairman of the DPC of the Indonesian Federation of Labor Struggle Herman Susanto in Cikarang, Thursday, confiscated by Antara.

He stated that workers are now faced with declining quality of welfare plus lack of work certainty, as can be seen from the various derivative rules of the job copyright law, including policies related to wages.

The government is considered not ready to express the idea of workers' wages in Indonesia marked by two changes to the concept since the job creation law was passed.

Such as removing decent living needs variables as the basis for calculating wages and then replacing them with formulas with wage increases never more than eight percent, even in Bekasi Regency, only up one percent in 2024 even though in 2025 it rose 6.5 percent.

"Meanwhile, in previous years, before the copyright law and its derivatives were determined, the average increase in labor wages in Bekasi Regency was above 10 percent. This means that the quality of wages is decreasing," he said.

Herman emphasized that the Constitutional Court had made a decision regarding several changes to articles in the job creation law. One of them is that the wage component must reincorporate the needs of a decent life referring to economic growth and certain indexes.

"Therefore, based on the results of the Silver Alliance wage team, the wage increase should be 15 percent in 2026," he said.

Chairman of the Joint Federation of Solidarity of Labor Struggle and Presidium of the Silver Alliance, Solikhin Suprihono, added that in addition to fighting for wage increases in 2026, the mass of demonstrations also demanded the existence of an Industrial Relations Court (PHI) in Bekasi Regency.

"We ask that a statement of the ability to prepare land for PHI from the Regent of Bekasi be sent to the President, Supreme Court, DPR RI, Minister of Manpower. Then a letter of proposal from the Regent of Bekasi and the Governor of West Java as well as a letter requesting a Presidential Decree regarding the formation of PHI in Bekasi Regency from the Regent of Bekasi and the Governor of West Java," he said.

The mass of action also demanded the establishment of a Bekasi Regent Regulation on apprenticeship and social security as well as asking the Minister of Manpower to restore the authority of employment supervision from the provincial government to the Bekasi Regency Government.

"The certainty of the appointment of permanent workers is also a problem for workers, now even all types of work can be transferred. The rise of brokering practices under the guise of a foundation or work training institution makes workers return to being victims. Not to mention the high cost when fighting for justice at PHI because it has to go to Bandung," he said.