TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Chairperson of the Indonesian Shopping Center Management Association or APPBI Alphonzus Widjaja asked the government to subsidize workers' wages by 50 percent. The remaining 50 percent, he said, will be paid by the firms.

"Say a worker's salary is Rp3 million per month, the government pays half of it or Rp1.5 million. So, shopping center managements only have to pay another Rp1.5 million," he said in an online press conference, Wednesday, July 21.

"Thus, workers will receive their wages in full, and the government subsidy would help the businesses [financially]," he added.

According to Alphonzus, this needs to be done to reduce the potential of job cuts. Currently, he said, most of the workers have been laid off, yet they are still being paid their full salaries. Although, he admitted that several job cuts were unavoidable.

If the Emergency PPKM is further extended, several workers will be laid off with salaries not paid in full, with job cuts to still be on the table.

"These stages depend on how long the emergency PPKM lasts. We hope that the last option of layoffs will not happen. Therefore, we ask the government to help reduce the burdens of shopping centers," Alphonzus said.

The government officially extended the implementation of Emergency PPKM until July 25, 2021. Economic activity will be relaxed on July 26, if the average daily addition of Covid-19 positive cases shows improvement.

Read: Emergency PPKM Extended, Shopping Centers Urge Govt to Grant Subsidies

Muhammad Hendartyo | Maudey K. Setyakusuma (Intern)