Tourism workers want better pay

The union says that the standardized wage is crucial for workers, given that tourism was the main source of income on the resort island. Union head Putu Satyawira said that since tourism was the breadwinning sector in the island, workers and related stakeholders had the potential to have higher spending in the market.

"People on the island make their money from tourism. Therefore, the wage system for tourism workers should be standardized to ensure better livelihoods, which will then have a multiplying effect in other sectors," Satyawira said.

There are around 16,000 tourism workers in Bali, mostly in Badung regency, who work in many popular tourist spots such as Kuta and Nusa Dua.

According to Satyawira, the current wage scheme for the workers in all fields uses a minimum wage set by the regency administration as the benchmark. In Badung, for instance, the minimum wage is Rp 1.1 million (US$110).

He said the minimum wage should be at least the same or exceed the wage calculated using the survey of appropriate living standards (KHL) regulated under the 2005 regulation by the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry.

"Based on the survey in June 2009, a minimum wage for a single worker, who has been working less than a year, with a daily need of 3,000 calories, is set at around Rp 1.33 million. Therefore, the current wage is still below the KHL standard," he stressed.

Satyawira said the demand for a minimum wage system for tourism workers was not aimed to discriminate the sector from others.

"It's not that tourism workers want to be treated differently, we just want tourism workers to have a positive economic impact in terms of higher consumer spending in other sectors," he said.

He emphasized that the minimum wage excluded service charges that the workers usually received from customers, saying that the wage only covered a sum of money the workers earn from their employers.

He said the administration should draft a regulation, in which there were classifications to determine the amount of minimum wage the workers could earn.

"The classification can be based on, for instance, the rank of hotels or restaurants the workers are employed in."

The workers' union also expects the provincial administration to have set up the minimum wage scheme by next year or by 2012, and to set a specific time target to achieve 100 percent of the KHL standard.

Commenting on the workers' demands, head of the Bali chapter of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) Tjokorda Artha Ardana Sukowati, known as Cok Ace, said that the association would be open to discuss the issue along with tourist operator organizations and related stakeholders.

He said that wage was only one of many components concerning the monthly income of workers.

"One of the biggest contributions to the workers' monthly income is the service charge in hotels and restaurants, which is 10 percent of the rate. Wage is only a small portion of their take home pay every month," Cok Ace told The Jakarta Post.

"That's why many workers in the tourism sector can survive in low season, because they not only rely on salaries from their companies, they also have other sources of income. "Basically we are open to discuss this issue to find a favorable solution for all parties."