BANDUNG. West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan set a new minimum wage for all employers in Bekasi regency on Saturday, following an agreement reached by the government, the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) and Bekasi labor unions in Jakarta on Friday evening.

The standard minimum wages for the 2012 fiscal year, as stipulated in the gubernatorial decree No. 561/2012, are as follows: Rp 1,491,000 for general workers, Rp 1,715,000 for industrial workers in Category I and Rp 1,849,000 for Category II workers.

“The minimum wage dispute has been solved with the new decree,” West Java administration spokesperson Ruddy Gandakusumah said Saturday in Bandung, West Java.

Separately, the chairman of Apindo's West Java chapter, Dedy Wijaya, said that the revision was the best option for all the parties involved.

“I hope this [dispute] will be the last,” Dedy said, refusing to elaborate on the details, when asked about the losses suffered by companies due to Friday's protest.

Friday's meeting between the workers' unions and Apindo, which was directly supervised by Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa and Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar, was held following a massive rally staged by tens of thousands of Bekasi workers earlier that day. They had blocked the Jakarta–Cikarang toll road access to Bekasi from Kilometer 21 to Kilometer 26, paralyzing economic activity in the region.

Previously, the West Java administration had set slightly higher levels of Rp 1,491,866, Rp 1,715,645 and Rp 1,849,913 as the minimum wages in the respective categories. Apindo Bekasi lodged a lawsuit with the West Java State Administrative Court in Bandung rejecting the levels set by the provincial government; a suit that was accepted by the court on Thursday, prompting the massive rally.

The leader of the Bekasi branch of the Metal Electronic and Mechanical Workers’ Union, Warnadi Rakasiwi, told The Jakarta Post that the workers had staged the rally to protest against the ruling issued by the court. (Arya Dipa and Sita W. Dewi/ The Jakarta Post)

Editor: Edy Can