REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KARAWANG -- Several companies in Karawang district, West Java, are certain that they will be laying off some of their workers as they cannot afford to pay the set high minimum wage for 2015, according to an executive.

"The district minimum wage in Karawang is admittedly the highest in West Java. As a result, many companies will scale down on their number of employees," Puji Isyanto, the executive director of the Karawang chapter of the Association of Indonesian Entrepreneurs (Apindo), stated on Monday.

Besides reducing their number of employees in stages, many companies in Karawang were also likely to relocate their plants to other districts in the country, he added. Among the companies that would slash their employee numbers are automotive companies as the market has been sluggish, Isyanto explained.

"However, the companies that have the greatest chance of reducing their number of employees and relocating to other districts are the labor-intensive ones," he affirmed.

Isyanto earlier noted that the Apindo chapter in Karawang was preparing a lawsuit against the district government's decision to set the 2015 minimum wage at 2,957,450 IDR.

"Officially, the Karawang chapter of Apindo did not agree with the 2015 minimum wage decision. So we will initiate legal action," he said.

The association is in the process of filing a lawsuit with the state administrative court against the decision that has set a fairly high minimum wage, he remarked.

During the preparatory stage, the Karawang chapter would coordinate with the West Java provincial chapter of the entrepreneurs' association and the Apindo central executive board, he added. Isyanto also said that the district minimum wage, which has been approved by the Governor of West Java Ahmad Heryawan, is not based on findings of any surveys.

He pointed out that the Karawang chapter of the association did not attend the meeting of the district wage council held sometime ago where the 2015 minimum wage was decided because it had renounced its membership of the council.

"Apindo did not sign the official report on minimum wages in Karawang," he affirmed, adding that the association had given up its membership of the council because it was disappointed with the result of the meeting that set the living standard.

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