50 workers protest dismissals

50 workers protest dismissals

JAKARTA (JP): Fifty former employees of the beverage firm PT
Polari Limunusa in Tangerang visited the Jakarta Legal Aid
Institute on Wednesday to complain about their dismissal last
month.

According to the workers, they were dismissed shortly after
setting up a branch of the All-Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI) at
their plant.

"The firm did not acknowledge our union after we proposed a
new working agreement," Teguh, the worker's spokesman, said.

Senior company officials insist that the workers were
dismissed as a result of the economic crisis, he added.

None of the firm's executives could be reached for comment on
Wednesday.

Teguh said the firm offered severance payment in accordance
with Ministry of Manpower regulations but that the had workers
rejected the offer.

He said the employees, all of whom had worked for the firm for
between three and five years, wanted to be reemployed and to be
given their December salaries, which average Rp 250,000 (US$33)
per person.

They also want the company to pay their Idul Fitri bonuses in
accordance with the law, he said.

Rino Subagyo, a lawyer with the institute, said that the firm
had violated an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention
on freedom to set up a union. The government ratified the treaty
last year.

Rino said the institute would summon the firm's executives to
discuss the matter further. (jun)