A topic close to my heart and probably very little interest to anybody else is the current situation with Indonesia’s manpower regulations. You would think a country that enjoys such a large population and an abundance of natural resources would be a world leader. Unfortunately to the distress of many, (both local and expat) this is not the case.

The reasons for Indonesia not achieving it’s full potential are so complex I could not hope to cover all the reasons here. However my major frustration at the moment seems to be that a large % of people cannot see that the countries manpower regulations over protect the “rights” of employees to the extent that foreign investors can’t leave fast enough.

Nike is just a recent name that has pulled out leaving countless people unemployed. In their wake was a sea of people protesting and shouting about how unfair it was for Nike to leave them and not support them. I am guessing that these were the same people who joined a union that had more power than sense. A union that consistently caused trouble for the management and forced salary increases year on year. A union that protected the rights of workers who were unproductive and stole from their employers.

What a lot of people fail to realize is that if you are being paid more money then you should be giving your employer something in return. Maybe increased productivity or sales would be a nice return on investment or maybe even a high quality of work.

Unfortunately the trend seems to be an increase in medical costs, increase in salary, increase in government charges etc, while the same lack of accountability and lack of standards remains unchanged.

As an employer I pay reasonable salaries, give good commissions, annual bonus and very good medical coverage for all my employees and their family. Yet instead of being able to concentrate on building the business, much of my time is spent looking at employee contracts, company regulations, and meetings with government officials trying to make themselves money.

It’s about time the government had the balls to do something about the situation before it’s too late. More companies are going to go from Indonesia until there is a fair balance in the manpower regulations.

Shame isn't it ?

For the 967th time I find myself wondering why it is so difficult for me to throw money at Indonesia.

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I have never posted a delta before.

someone should start an employers union to counter-lobby the other union.. ha.ha.

I agree 100% with you chewwy, and what's so strange is that everyone knows this is a problem, everyone vows to change it and yet nothing but lip service actually gets done. At the end of the day, those involved in the ministry and other MPs use it as a cash cow and play politics with it to keep the 'system' running as is without any proper changes.

BTW, Nike actually decided/conceded yesterday to stay here for at least 2 more years amidst threats of bad press.