Bank DKI employee seeks legal help

JAKARTA (JP): A woman worker from city owned Bank DKI visited the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute on Tuesday to seek legal advice on her dispute with the bank, which she claims violated her human rights by barring her from marrying.

Yuli Paramastuti, 35, said she was suspended in January shortly after she questioned the bank's decision to demote her from a permanent employee to a trainee.

"Through the decision, I am not allowed to marry for at least two years. I think it is a violation of human rights," said Yuli, who was accompanied by her boyfriend.

The graduate of the master's program in management from Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta said the regulation barring bank employees from marrying for a set period of time only applied to tellers who were high school graduates.

She said she took part in a series of selection tests in 1993 and was accepted as a permanent employee in 1995 through a governor's decree.

She said the bank suddenly decided to downgrade her status from permanent employee to a probation worker in January.

Yuli filed suit with the Jakarta Administrative Court to seek annulment of the demotion.

She said the court's provisional decision on March 11 rejected her suit on the grounds the dispute should have been heard by an arbitration panel at the bank.

The legal aid institute's labor division head Surya Tjandra questioned the court decision. He said the court should handle the case because there was nobody at the bank who could serve as arbitrator.

"We will also send a letter to the bank for not providing a arbitration body to examine labor disputes as required by regulations," Surya said. (jun)