20 dismissal cases still left unresolved in Batam
20 dismissal cases still left unresolved in Batam
BATAM, Riau (JP): At least 20 cases of more than 100 dismissed
workers remain unsolved here due to mistaken implementation of
regional autonomy measures in Riau province, officials said on
Friday.
M. Dermawan, secretary of the local chapter of the All-
Indonesia Workers Union Federation (FSPSI), told The Jakarta Post
that cases that could not be settled through mediation should be
brought to the provincial committee for settlement of labor
disputes (P4D) but they could not be settled because the P4D had
been dissolved, following implementation of regional autonomy in
the province in January.
"We don't know why the P4D was dissolved, and the local
administration never made an announcement about the dissolution,"
he said, while stating that the dismissed workers had staged
protests several times at the local manpower and transmigration
ministry office, but to no avail.
He said further that the FSPSI local chapter, which supervises
150,000 of around 350,000 workers employed at industrial zones in
the island, would have to deal with many more unresolved
dismissal cases. He added that it is still handling around 200
dismissal cases being negotiated at the company level.
"Many of the cases will certainly face a similar fate if they
cannot be resolved at the company (bipartite) level or at a
tripartite meeting between the workers, the employer and the
government," he said.
Sulaiman Yusuf, head of the local manpower and transmigration
ministry office, confirmed that all cases which could not be
settled at the bipartite and tripartite levels had been left
unresolved following dissolution of the P4D.
"The provincial P4D has no longer been effective since the
dissolution of the provincial manpower and transmigration office,
following the implementation of regional autonomy on Jan. 1,
2001," he said.
Sulaiman said the dissolution of the P4D had a lot to do with
erroneous implementation of regional autonomy measures.
He stated that the regional autonomy law requires that all
provincial ministry offices be liquidated and replaced with new
ones that have simple organizational networks, called dinas. He
suggested, however, that this did not mean the P4D was also
liquidated.
The P4D consists of ad hoc justices representing the workers,
the employers and the local government. The 1957 law on the
settlement of labor disputes that regulates the provincial and
central settlement committees (P4D and P4P) is still effective,
while the amendment bill that liquidates the P4D and P4P
institutions is being deliberated by the House of
Representatives.
Separately, Hardi Yuliwan, chief of the local office of state-
owned PT Jamsostek, said the insurance firm would continue to
give financial aid to dismissed workers in the island.
"Besides paying the pension funds to the dismissed workers in
accordance with their contributions to the pension fund program,
Jamsostek would also give one month's salary as financial aid to
help them seek other jobs," he said.
Hardi applauded the awareness of local employers and foreign
investors in the island in participating in the social security
programs.
"The investors' awareness of the social security programs is
very helpful in providing protection for workers in the
industrial zone," he said.
He said that of 1,200 companies employing almost 400,000
workers in the island, more than 900 with 250,000 workers have
participated in the social security programs.
He said that his office had collected Rp 23 billion for the
workers' four welfare programs since January 2001 and aimed to
collect around Rp 100 billion this year.
The programs comprise health care, death insurance,
occupational accidents and pension funds. (rms)