JAKARTA. The Indonesian Textile Association (API) asked the Indonesian government to increase working hours from 40 to 45-48 hours a week in the revision of Manpower Law.
Anne Patricia Sutanto, Deputy Chair of Foreign Trade in API, said that her party had carried out benchmarking in a number of emerging markets such as Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and India. In some of these countries, said Sutanto, the government set working hours between 45-48 hours a week.
But in Indonesia, Manpower Law No. 13 of 2003 regulates working hours at 40 hours a week. "We ask if it can be changed to 48 or 45 hours," Sutanto said in a press conference held on Thursday (19/9) today.
In addition to the issue of working hours, API also requested that the government revise overtime wages in the Law to a flat rate. Then, the minimum age limit for workers from 18 years to 17 years. Sutanto explained this proposal was made based on the consideration that 70% of current high school / vocational high school graduates are 17 years old on average. (KR/AR)