RI NEEDS TO SUSPEND SENDING OF WORKERS FOR TWO YEARS: LABOR UNION

Jakarta, June 28 (ANTARA) - A labor union said it would be better for the government to suspend dispatches of workers to Malaysia for two years.

"At least two years are needed to improve and rearrange memorandum of understanding on the protection of Indonesia's migrant workers abroad," General Chairman of the Confederation of the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Unions (KSBSI) Rekson Silaban said here on Sunday.

He said that it would not be enough for the government to improve the MoU with Malaysia if the temporary suspension of worker dispatch was only for two months.

The KSBSI chairman said that the Indonesian government had a lot of things to do in improving matters relating to the sending of workers abroad. Workers protection should be made beginning at home from where the Indonesian workers are departing until they are working overseas.

The things that have to be put in order included the placement of workers abroad through illegal channels, Silaban said.

"Protection of our workers abroad is still weak so that the government needs to cooperate with recipient countries for that effect," he said.

He said that the temporarily suspension of informal workers' dispatches to Malaysia would not have great impact on the sending of workers abroad in general.

In the meantime, Dian Ari of PT Bina Dasa Abadi, a manpower supplier firm, said the temporary suspension would not affect the number of workers sent abroad.

The head of the National Agency for the Protection and Placement of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), Jumhur Hidayat, said on Saturday Indonesia had suspended the dispatch of workers to Malaysia particularly for the informal sector until that country improved its law on Indonesian migrant workers.

Jumhur said the Indonesian government would not send workers particularly for the informal sector to Malaysia before the law on Indonesian migrant workers (TKI) was improved.***5***