JAKARTA. On the heels of a series of recent strikes by tens of thousands of workers, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono tells employers to increase labor wages in correspond to the country’s stable economic growth.

“Moral-wise, labor wages should be appropriate to meet the sense of justice,” Yudhoyono told journalists during an impromptu press conference at the Presidential Office on Wednesday.

“If our economy and business world continues to grow, then labor wages should go up in line with that growths,” he said.

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The President also said that all local administrations at the regency and city levels should take a share of responsibility in handling disputes concerning labor’s minimum wages in several regions.

“The tri-partite regional wage council [in each region], which consist of representatives from the local administration, businesspeople and labor unions, must be able to address the issue properly. The council knows the life costs in regions, thus, they should know how much the

minimum wage in each region should be,” Yudhoyono said.

“Don’t let the disputes be ridden by other interests. I hope this matter is free from any kind of political interests,” he went on.

One of the latest major strikes was when thousands of factory workers blockaded the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road for about eight hours last Friday, paralyzing economic activities in the area and closing down hundreds of factories on several industrial estates in Bekasi, West Java.

The strike also heavily affected toll road users. The protest erupted after the Bandung State Administrative Court in West Java ruled in favor of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) and ordered the Bekasi regency administration to annul its decision to set the regency’s 2012 minimum monthly wage at Rp 1.49 million (US$165.39). (Bagus BT Saragih/ The Jakarta Post)