Bank staff reject their dismissal

Bank staff reject their dismissal

JAKARTA (JP): Two hundred HongkongBank employees, who have
been on strike for two weeks, refused to accept their dismissals
yesterday.

"We have never given consideration to the dismissal letters or
the other warning letters from the management because they are
not in accordance with the law," Saepul Taved, deputy chairman of
the company's unit of the All-Indonesia Workers Union, said at
the World Trade Center yesterday.

The management used the dismissals to try to evade the
problem, he said. "I think they should know that what we are
dealing with here are negotiations to revise the collective labor
agreement, which has been postponed for seven months."

The HongkongBank management has submitted the names of 200
employees, 11 of whom are officials from the company's union, to
the manpower ministry for having resigned on April 29 under
Labor Law No. 3/1996.

The law states that a worker is considered as having
"resigned" if he or she has been absent from work for five
consecutive days without a written explanation and valid excuse
and after being called on by the management.

Despite the management's decision, the workers were still seen
hanging around the bank yesterday.

The workers said they were paying no attention to the letters
of dismissal, saying that they were focusing their efforts on
revising the agreement.

"I never submitted a resignation letter," said one female
worker, who wished to remain unanimous. "I think the management
understands that we have been absent because of our struggle for
something which is our right," she added, referring to the
collective labor agreement.

"You see, we are not newcomers here. Many of us have worked
for 10 to 24 years; we know what we are doing and we will stick
together to reach our goal," she said.

Erita, from the bank's personnel department, told The Jakarta
Post that the management did not want to comment.

Negotiations of 12 of the agreement's 40 points ended in
deadlock during recent talks, which included the manpower
ministry.

The 12 points include the workers' demand for an 8.9 percent
pay increase, bigger loans for medical care and housing as well
as the establishment of a pension fund.

The manpower ministry's director general of labor standards,
Sabar Sianturi, told the Post yesterday that the ministry is
preparing proposals for both parties regarding the 12 disputed
points. "They will be finished this week," he said.

He said that if both parties cannot accept the proposals, the
case will be referred to the manpower ministry's central
committee for labor disputes.

"Everything will go through the proper procedures, including
the resignation proposals," he said. "We will see if there is
good enough reason for the management to dismiss the employees."

The workers said they plan to have other parties mediate, such
as the National Commission on Human Rights, the office of the
coordinating minister for political and security affairs, and
members of the House of Representatives, with whom they met
earlier.

HongkongBank, a subsidiary of the giant Hongkong Shanghai bank
Corporation, England, is the most profitable bank in Asia, with
517 employees, including 418 in Jakarta, and others in Surabaya,
Bandung, Batam, Medan and Semarang. (03)