Jakarta (The Straits Times) – Sports equipment maker Nike has agreed to pay workers in Indonesia close to US$1 million in unpaid overtime work, a concession which union leaders hope will prompt change in a country whose cheap labour force is a major draw for big multinational corporations. Around 4,500 workers from Nike's PT Nikomas shoe plant in Banten province claimed that almost 600,000 hours of overtime work went unpaid in the last two years. Investigations into the workers' complaints by the Serikat Pekerja National (SPN) trade union, as well as Educating for Justice – a US-based non-profit organisation that exposes alleged labour abuses – found that at least 4,437 workers had been forced to work overtime for up to two hours a day, six days a week. They were supposed to have been paid 13,000 rupiah (US$1.42) an hour for overtime work but these payments were withheld. After close to a year of negotiations, the company, with headquarters near Beaverton, Oregon, agreed a settlement. Mr Bambang Wirahyoso, national chairman of the SPN, said that while the union was pleased with the result, the workers should have been awarded much more. “The practice of forcing workers to do overtime without pay was… happening for 18 years at Nikomas, but Indonesian law only allows redress for the past two years,” he said in a statement. The case was a result of tip-offs and investigations over four years, he told The Straits Times. “This is justice served,” Education for Justice director Jim Keady said in a statement. “It took 11 months of work and we had to fight through denials and outright lies by the management, but the workers persevered and we won.” The payout will be distributed in two instalments – on Jan20 and on Feb5 – Mr Bambang said. He said he hoped the case would set a precedent in a country where factory employees often work seven-day weeks without overtime or proper benefits. “This has the potential to send shockwaves through the Indonesian labour movement,” he said, adding that his union was gearing up to fight for other workers. It will be starting a hotline and an SMS-based portal for other labourers to report abuses. Mr Bambang said he would be travelling to Batam over the weekend to look into worker disputes that have taken place there recently. Mr Keady said unions are planning to take similar action against other multinationals such as Adidas and Puma. Many companies base their factories in Indonesia due to its cheap labour force, but in recent times, Indonesian workers in cities such as Batam and Papua have staged mass protests, sometimes violent ones, over low wages. Nike, which faced heavy criticism a decade ago for its foreign sweatshops and use of child labour, has taken steps since then to improve conditions at its 1,000 or so overseas factories. Indonesia is Nike's third-largest manufacturing base after China and Vietnam. In a statement issued yesterday, Nike said: “Nike commends the factory on its action plan and efforts to correct inadequacies in current policies designed to protect the rights of workers. Nike will continue to monitor and support its efforts to re-mediate the situation.” Indonesia's Footwear Association (Aprisindo) estimated that 400 million pairs of shoes, mainly sports shoes, were exported from the country last year. The value of the country's footwear exports is expected to have risen by 23 per cent last year to US$3.2 billion. In the first half of last year, 11 new footwear makers from economies such as Australia, China, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam invested in Indonesia, while big brands like Adidas and Nike have continued to place orders with Indonesian manufacturers. Last year, the Associated Press reported that West Java workers making sneakers for Converse, which is owned by Nike, received harsh treatment from their factory supervisors. Nike admitted then that such abuses had occurred, but said there was little it could do as contracts prevented the parent company from inspecting factories and imposing codes of conduct. Labour activist Odie Hudiyanto said 60 per cent or so of employees in Indonesia are contract workers, who are often too afraid to report cases of abuse. Most are not in unions. ‘We view (Nike's agreement) as a big step, as it sends a signal to companies that unions and workers can and will take on companies, especially the large ones, if they continue to exploit cheap labour in Indonesia,' he told The Straits Times. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/hA8Jw Tags: Indonesia, Nike, Workers Section: Business, East Asia, Latest News
