Bandung court favors PTDI workers
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
A panel of judges at the Bandung District Court ruled on Wednesday in favor of the union at aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI), which had filed a suit to stop the firing of more than 6,000 employees.
The three defendants in the suit were the management of the ailing company, the Office of the State Minister for State Enterprises and the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).
Presiding judge Marni Emmy Mustofa said in her decision that the extraordinary shareholders meeting held by the three defendants in August last year, which recommended the dismissal of more than 6,000 employees, was illegal.
Only three of the company's directors attended the meeting, while regulations require such extraordinary meetings be attended by all five directors of a company, she said.
The two directors absent from the meeting were Puji Sulaksono and Budi S. Taufik.
They refused to attend the meeting because they were informed of it via short messaging service (SMS) rather than by an official written invitation, according to the presiding judge.
In the decision, the panel of judges ordered the management to restore the rights of the dismissed employees and allow them to return to work at the company.
The court also ordered the PTDI management to establish a joint restructuring commission to look into ways to save the company from its financial woes. This commission should comprise representatives from IBRA, the union, the Office of the State Minister for State Enterprises and independent parties.
More than 3,000 employees of the company and their families, who followed the proceedings outside the courthouse, lauded the decision.
The panel of judges ordered the defendants to pay a fine Rp 60 million (US$7,500). They also urged police and prosecutors to investigate alleged corruption at the company.
In its decision, the court said the employees were fired to shift blame for the company's financial troubles from the management of the company to the employees.
The judges also said the company would not have gone bankrupt if there was no mismanagement at the company.
However, there are questions as to whether the company, which is struggling to repay debts, will be financially able to bring back the workers.
This situation began last year when the management, with the government's approval, dismissed 6,600 of the company's 9,350 employees. The workers were laid off after the company was unable to repay its debts to local and international creditors.
The government released US$5 million for severance and service pay for the dismissed workers, who rejected the payments and demanded their jobs back.
They said the company's financial problems were not caused by overstaffing, but by a corrupt and inefficient management that had cost the company between Rp 2 trillion and Rp 3 trillion since 1997.
M. Lutfi Hakim, the lawyer for the defendants, said he would appeal.
The president director of PTDI, Edwin Soedarmo, said the employees would not be rehired. He said the Central Committee for the Settlement of Labor Disputes (P4P) had the ultimate authority to rule on the case.
The P4P has backed the dismissals.