The Application Requirements for Hiring Foreign Labor with Their Oddities

Considering Presidential decree No. 72 Year 2014, the requirement to bring in a foreign labour is not simple. The sponsor companies are obliged to employ local labours as a counterparts. By assistance system it is expected there are technology and knowledge transfer to local labours. Therefore, the labour ratio between local and foreign labor should meet the requirement of one foreign labor to ten local labors.

The Company, which will employ foreign labours in Indonesia are also obliged to complete dozens of documents. In order to complete the documents, each company should undergo some procedures to meet the requirements at various divisions at Directorate General for Labor Training and Employment (Binapenta) of the Ministry of Labor and at Directorate General  of Immigration of Ministry of Justice and Human Rights

"The problem is that many illegal brokers intrude the government offices to interfere the giving of permits.  They are always ready to offer their complete services with the detail tariffs, "said Ani Muttaqiyathun, S.E., M.Sc. the head of the Management Deparment Faculty of Economics, University of Ahmad Dahlan (UAD) Yogyakarta when attending a program at Radio of Sonora Jogjakarta, Thursday (08/18/2016).

Referring to the results of the Tempo investigation (Main report in Tempo magazine August 31, 2015 edition), an illegal broker told that the Labor Ministry official rarely checked the validity of the foreign labor’s personal data. If there is a supervision, the brokers say they just assist the applicants.

Another illegal broker told his experience to apply for a working permit for  two low educated traditional Chinese cuisine cooks. To do this, the broker bribed the officials at Binapenta and the Director General of Immigration, the amount of money for bribery vary for each foreign labor

"Besides being effective, it also is also efficient for the bribers to get the permits. The normal procedure takes some seven weeks to three months to get IMTA. However, the brokers can provide the permits within three weeks to one month, "said Ani.

Based on the findings as reported by Tempo magazine, a lot of Chinese laborers are involved as low workers. This is against the law, which says that only trained foreign workers are allowed to work in the country. These workers can be found in different work areas such as at the construction of Vapor Power Plant Celukan Bawang, Buleleng, Bali, construction at Bayah, Lebak, Banten, and the construction of Bauxite Smelter done by PT Well Harvest Winning Alumina Refinery in Kendawangan Ketapang in Kalimantan Barat. (dock)