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)