Non-essential Factory Workers Work 100 Percent, KSPI President Said Iqbal Calls Jokowi's Inter-Ministry Rules Out Of Sync

JAKARTA - The Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) conducted a survey, the results showed that there were still many factories that violated the rules during the PPKM Level 4. One of the violations was that the number of workers or laborers who entered was not limited, meaning that they worked 100 percent.

KSPI President Said Iqbal said the survey was conducted on a number of workers representing 1,000 factories engaged in the textile, printing, retail, logistics, transportation, electronics, energy, mining, pharmaceutical, and iron and steel sectors.

Iqbal said, there were five questions that were put to the leaders of the trade unions or workers in each company. One of them is related to factory operations. Whether the factory or company is still working 100 percent or not, what is the work arrangement if it doesn't operate at 100 percent.

"All of the non-essential factories answered that 100 percent were still working. So, 99 percent of the questionnaires were answered by workers who were still working 100 percent," he said in a virtual press conference, Monday, July 26.

Iqbal said that the cause could be due to asynchronous policies between the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment always commanding PPKM Java-Bali, Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs as the command for PPKM outside Java-Bali, and the Ministry of Industry as the party issuing operational permits and mobility for industrial activities. (IOMKI).

"The main problem why 99 percent of the factories we surveyed are still operating at 100 percent because each factory shows the union that they have a permit from the Ministry of Industry," he explained.

Furthermore, said Iqbal, factory owners always show an operational permit from the minister of industry. Even in the factory there is no term work from home or 50 percent work from home (WFH) for workers. In fact, IOMKI also regulates the number of incoming workers.

"In IOMKI it is regulated to have 50 percent WFH, 50 percent WFO, in fact it is not," he said.

Therefore, according to Iqbal, the implementation of PPKM Level 4 in factories is not running effectively. According to him, the government must fix the asynchronous regulations.

"The main reason is that there is no synchronization between the government or between ministers. So it's not just the people who are regulated. The ministers are also regulated. We ask that IOMKI should stop it, if you really want to enforce rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19," he said