Garbage truck drivers strike over wages<\/p>\n
TANGERANG (JP): The local administration is at odds with
\nscores of garbage truck drivers who are demanding higher wages,
\naccess to a social security program, health allowances and the
\nright to moonlight.<\/p>\n
Some 160 garbage truck drivers and their assistants staged a
\nprotest on Monday by parking their vehicles in front of a
\ngovernment office to dramatize their demands.<\/p>\n
They stopped every garbage truck on its way to Kedaung Wetan
\ndump site and invited the occupants to join the protest.<\/p>\n
They dispersed peacefully only after two government officials
\noverseeing city sanitation, Bahar Zein and Dadang, promised to
\nlook into their demands.<\/p>\n
The workers submitted an eight-point petition in which they
\nalso claimed that administration officials had threatened to
\ndismiss them any time they objected to government policies.<\/p>\n
Top priorities were their demands to be included in the state
\nsocial security program, given easier access to loans from the
\nworkers' cooperative and be allowed to moonlight.<\/p>\n
They demanded that the administration make their status clear
\nbecause, they said, many had worked for a great many years but
\nwere only paid Rp 9,000 (US$90 cent) a month and that they were
\nrequired to extend their contracts every year.<\/p>\n
\"We have never received overtime even though we are often made
\nto work extra hours,\" said the workers' spokesman, Gofur.<\/p>\n
Lately, Gofur said, the government had refused to share the
\npayments from private factories who hire them to dispose of waste
\nfor between Rp 50,000 and Rp 100,000.<\/p>\n
In the past, up to Rp 30,000 of the money would go to the
\nworkers, he said.<\/p>\n
\"The government says we are no longer entitled to share the
\nmoney (from private) companies on the pretext that every cent
\nshould go to the state coffers as locally generated revenue,\"
\nGofur said.<\/p>\n
Tangerang mayoralty government spokesman Harry Mulya Zein said
\nthat the administration was \"looking for the best solution\" to
\nthe problem.<\/p>\n
\"We are thinking of how to reach a fair solution without
\nsacrificing locally generated revenue, such as garbage-disposal
\nfees from factories,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Harry defended the administration's regulation on moonlighting
\non the grounds that the activity would shorten garbage trucks'
\nlifespan quicker without contributing money to the government's
\ncoffers. (41\/09)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/garbage-truck-drivers-strike-over-wages-1447893297",
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