[ad_1]
JAKARTA: Indonesia will review minimum wage and other labour rules, the president’s office said on Tuesday (Sep 13), after trade unions staged nationwide protests against a recent hike in petrol prices that they say has come even as incomes stagnate.
President Joko Widodo raised subsidised fuel prices in Southeast Asia’s largest economy by 30 per cent earlier this month to rein in a spiralling energy subsidy budget, sparking protests by workers and students across the country.
The fuel price hike is set to accelerate inflation, which has already reached its highest since 2015 due to rising food prices.
Heru Budi Hartono, chief of the president’s office, on Monday met with workers protesting at the presidential palace in central Jakarta to discuss their demands, according to a palace statement.
Workers have called for a change in the formula used by the government to determine annual increases in minimum wage, and for changes in the controversial Job Creation law, Heru said in the statement, referring to controversial legislation passed in 2020 that unions said was too pro-business.
Authorities are set to review the workers’ demands on Tuesday, Heru said.
[ad_2]