Bank employees' severance pay

Bank employees' severance pay

From Pikiran Rakyat

The demand by laid-off bank employees of the 38 banks
liquidated by the government on March 13 for severance pay 10
times their monthly salaries makes sense. The government
therefore should consider the matter with wisdom.

The government should not persist in following the manpower
ministry decree which stipulates severance pay equal to two
months' salary for laid-off employees. The decree should be
revised because it is not just and it demeans the dignity of
Indonesian workers, including the permanent employees of the
liquidated banks.

This condition should attract the attention of workers, labor
activists, members of the House of Representatives and the
leaders of the new political parties. Even 10 months salary would
not tempt bank employees to quit. They would prefer to keep their
jobs or find new jobs in the banking sector. In other words, the
demanded severance pay is not an excessive amount of compensation
for the loss of their jobs.

I would propose the employees of the 38 liquidated banks
direct their demands not to the directors or owners of the banks,
but to the government; i.e. the finance ministry, Bank Indonesia,
the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency, as well as the manpower
ministry, the House speaker, the International Monetary Fund, the
World Bank, senior reform figures (Ruslan Abdulgani and Ali
Sadikin) and the current crop of reformists (Amien Rais, Sri
Bintang Pamungkas and Budiman Sujatmiko).

This fight is of the greatest importance as the starting point
in the process of raising the dignity of Indonesian workers. This
is especially true if the workers are fired through no fault of
their own. The fight has a wider scope for the future of
Indonesian workers. Moreover, liquidated banks firing thousands
of employees is no solution.

In the case of firings due to bank liquidations, the
government should help by acting proactively to settle the
problem of severance pay so the employees and their dependents
are not abandoned. The dignity of employees cannot be equated
with 10 months salary because there is still the loss of their
status with the announcement of the liquidation of the banks they
worked at.

SUNARTO SUKMA

Surabaya