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)