'Ananda' workers demand severance pay

'Ananda' workers demand severance pay

JAKARTA (JP): Seven people, representing 17 employees of Ananda, a monthly magazine, came to the Jakarta chapter of Legal Aid Institute (LBH-Jakarta) yesterday to complain about their dismissal.

The employees said all the 17 were fired from the magazine arbitrarily and asked the LBH-Jakarta to represent them in their legal struggle against the management of the Raden Saleh Foundation, a publisher of children magazines.

"We want adequate severance pay as was promised," Supono H.S., the employee spokesman, told reporters.

Supono said that Lukman Umar, chief of the magazine's board of patron, last month promised to give them severance pay of one and a half times the government compensation standard times their latest salary and times the length of their service.

Some of the complainants had worked for the magazine since 1976.

According to government regulations, a dismissed worker, with 19-year experience, and a salary of Rp 500,000, deserves three times their last monthly salary, Rp 1,500,000.

According to Lukman Umar's promise, the management should have paid this worker, 150 percent of Rp 1,500,000 times the number of years of service, in this case 19, which comes to Rp 42,750,000.

"However, Lukman Umar later denied making this promise and decided the amount of the allowance would be given starting only from 1986," he said.

Supono said the employees were fired after PT Garuda Metropolitan Press (GMP), which published the magazine, went bankrupt in August. This caused the closure of the magazine.

Apong Herlina, a lawyer from LBH-Jakarta who will represent the employees, said they will try to negotiate with the management of the foundation regarding the amount of the severance payment for the employees.

"However, we will file a lawsuit at a district court if we later find violations in the procedure of the dismissal," Apong said.

The magazine management was not available for comment yesterday.(imn)