TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Education and Culture Minister Anies Baswedan will set minimum wage for contract and honorary teachers. "Workers have minimum wage. Teachers should have too," he said on Tuesday, November 25, 2014.
Different from teachers with civil servant status, honorary teachers are not protected under the State Manpower Agency, making their salary unregulated. In some regions, honorary teachers only receive salary of Rp. 300,000 per month. "That is nonsense," said Anies.
In order to determine minimum wage, Anies has met Administrative and Bureaucracy Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi to discuss. "Minimum wage has to be determined soon," he said. "We're still calculating the number because every region is different."
Sugiaryo, chariman of the Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) in Surakarta, said that some non-civil servant teachers are living in poor conditions because their salaries are still far from the city's minimum wage of Rp. 1,145,000. Some still receive salaries of Rp. 250,000, Rp. 100,000 and even under Rp. 100,000. From 7,800 members of Surakarta PGRI, around 6,000 teachers have non-permanent status.
PGRI chairman Sulistyio said that the government has also enhance legal protection for teachers because they are often politically persecuted after regional elections.
An example can be seen in the election of Boyolali Regent in 2010. After the election, 2,000 teachers were transferred in a year. "A transfer is like a punishment. There are teachers who lived and worked in eastern region, but then were suddenly transferred to western region," he said.
If the reason for the transfer is for promotion, teachers are usually invited first for discussion. "It's different for punishment. The decision letter can come out unexpectedly," he said.
INDRI MAULIDAR | UKKY PRIMARTANTYO | PAMELA SARNIA