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)