Bali Indonesia held a commemoration of International Women’s Day with a  demonstration in front of dozens of activists at the Bali governor’s office. The action was led by students, mothers – many of who are members of the National Student Front as well as members of the Alliance of Women Bali and One Billion Rising Bali.

Retno Dewi, a member of the women’s union in Indonesia Bali, and OBR Bali coordinator, in her speech said that Bali is a very popular tourist destination but many of the workers are exploited and have not prospered. This is due to workers tied to a contractual system that is considered detrimental to the workers. The difference in salary between male and female workers was also raised.

“The regulation of the increase in wages in 2016 is set nationally and it must be obeyed by the local government, and the governor must implement it. The 2016 increase of 11.5 percent should be applied iin Bali, but instead, here, we get paid very minimally”, said Retno in the protest action in front of the governor of Bali last March 8th.

She said the increase must be done to meet the needs of the workers, especially women. She pointed out that  there is a big difference in the wages received by male and female workers. Male farm workers are paid 80,000 per day while women workers are paid 70,000 per day.

In the Bali Women Alliance statement, the demands are for the the government to repeal PP 78 2015, to demand higher wages, to stop modern slavery, to stop the contractual labor system and to stop the system of the outsourcing of labor.