Policy Research
Welcome to the first edition of the SMERU Newsletter in our second year as an independent organization. This edition focuses on various issues concerning the determination of minimum wages. From April to Oktober 2001, SMERU conducted a major study in this area, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. A summary of the main findings of our work is presented in this edition.
The first half of this year has flown by. We have experienced a host of social, economic, legal and political problems that have left us all feeling exhausted. Yet, as a nation we still have to solve another equally crucial problem, the question of poverty. This edition deliberately sets out to highlight poverty as an important issue which must not be allowed to become a secondary priority on our national agenda.
In this era where employees are free to organize their own labor unions, industrial relations issues have become a topic of heated debate, especially as new bills on “The Development and Protection of the Workforce” (RUU PPK) and “Industrial Relations Dispute Resolutions” (RUU PPHI) are soon to be ratified. We would like to raise the issue of industrial relations as the main topic for this edition.
It is no secret that registering land in Indonesia can be a very difficult process, as it is both time consuming and costly. This is evident in that until 1992 only 12 million land parcels had been registered (22% of the total number of land parcels in Indonesia at that time).
Whether as the result of fi nancial crisis (Thailand, Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia 1997; Russia and Ecuador 1998; Brazil 1999; Turkey 2001; and Argentina 2002), delayed systemic transformation (the countries of the Former Soviet Union) or domestic diffi culties (Zimbabwe 2001), a large number of countries have experienced macroeconomic crises in recent years.
