Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1998, published 87th ILC session (1999)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Indonesia (Ratification: 1950)

The Committee notes the Government's report.

Article 1(1) and Article 2, of the Convention. 1. In its previous observation, the Committee asked the Government to provide information on the situation in East Kalimantan on the Island of Borneo. The Committee referred in considerable detail to information from the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) that the Dayak people were submitted to conditions of debt bondage. This resulted from practices in commercial logging concessions, in related company-designed community development projects, and in industrial forest plantations. Also, as a result of the negative impact of logging concessions on local communities, the Government was said to have required all concessions to undertake the development of a nearby community under a development programme (HPH Bina Desa Programme); but these programmes were commonly misused by companies which coerced and threatened villagers into forming work groups and farmers' groups. The groups were then, it was said, ordered to carry out uncompensated labour on so-called "participatory" development projects designed by the company without regard for the needs or wishes of the community being "developed".

2. The Government states in its report that the objective of the community development programme is to assist the village community in acquiring economic and social facilities such as road construction and village meeting halls, developing various local businesses, and improving awareness of forest conservation and security. Planning and implementation by the logging concessions is always based on a diagnostic study, which is to identify the economic condition and potential of the respective village as well as social conditions, aspirations and expectations of the community. To build the economic and social facilities, the Dayak people are usually only asking for support from the programme to provide the material needed. They work together voluntarily without expecting wages.

3. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the practical application of the programmes, and particularly on any measures aiming, for example, at guaranteeing that the programmes are entered into voluntarily by the villagers concerned and that there is no form of compulsory work or any constraint in the application of the programmes by the companies, whose interest it is to show that the programmes have been completed to secure the renewal of their timber licenses. It remains concerned at allegations of forced labour in these circumstances.

4. The Committee in its previous observations also mentioned a joint decree by the Ministries of Forestry and Transmigration, requiring the logging concessions to develop industrial forest plantations (Hutaman Tanaman Industri, HTI). The Committee indicated that it had been informed that wages paid on the plantation were usually significantly lower than the cost of living. Company stores had been established near plantation or logging work sites. Purchases at these company stores were made under a voucher system run by company management and the vouchers were based upon future wages, thus creating a risk of debt-incurred labour. The Committee notes that there are no comments on that aspect in the report with regard to debt bondage and asks the Government to provide information on this matter in its next report.

5. The Committee previously noted that, according to the WCL, under the industrial forest plantation transmigration programme, impoverished farmers from Java are provided with a boat ticket to a Kalimantan port. They are then placed in far-off locations, and there is no choice for some of them but to engage in plantation labour or logging work gangs at wages lower than the cost of living, forcing them into debt. Indigenous people, as well as transmigrant workers, are forced into a situation of total dependence and impoverished workers are turned into bonded labourers.

6. The Government in response states that the transmigration programme is for transferring people from the densely populated areas (Java and Bali) to the less inhabited areas (in general on other islands), and opening new agricultural land. Industrial forest plantation may be managed by the Government, or by private enterprises or cooperatives, with 35-year concessions. Transmigrants are recruited on a voluntary basis. The available land is Government-owned unproductive land which has not yet been occupied, possessed or governed by any traditional local people. Wages may not be lower than the regional minimum wage.

7. The Committee refers to Recommendation No. 35 concerning indirect compulsion to labour and recalls the principles it lays down to guide the policy in endeavouring to avoid any indirect compulsion to labour. In deciding questions connected with the economic development of territories, particularly when deciding upon increases in the numbers and extent of agricultural undertakings, non-indigenous settlements or the granting of forest or other concessions, several factors should be taken into consideration. The factors include matters such as the amount of labour available, the capacities of the population and the evil effects which sudden changes in the habits of life and labour may have on the social conditions of the population. It is also desirable to avoid indirect means of artificially increasing the economic pressure upon populations to seek wage-earning employment, particularly by such means as imposing such restrictions on the possession, occupation, or use of land as would have the effect of rendering difficult the gaining of a living by independent cultivation.

8. While noting the information provided by the Government in its report, the Committee would ask the Government to provide information on any measures taken in the forestry sector to ensure that no conditions are created which would forcibly lead workers into a situation of bondage, total dependence or abusive exploitation: such measures might include, for example, inspections, investigation or supervision, particularly as regards wages actually paid, the operation of company stores, the system of vouchers in use therein and other aspects of the conditions of work of indigenous people and transmigrants. The Committee asks the Government to provide any relevant reports on labour inspection in the field of interregional employment. It also asks the Government to provide information on the sanctions applicable in cases of abuse (Article 25 of the Convention).

9. Finally, the Committee again asks the Government to provide information on the situation of workers in dangerous conditions on fishing platforms off the coast of Sumatra, where there is said to be forced child labour. As no information was included in the report, the Committee asks the Government to provide this information with its next report.