'Berita Buana' staff sues management

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta

Journalists and employees of Berita Buana daily newspaper filed a civil lawsuit on Monday at the East Jakarta District Court against their company's management, for not paying them a salary over the last eight months.

"We have not received our pay since October 2003," said Ating Supriyatna, a representative of the workers. "The management has also not shown any intention of resolving the situation, although there has already been a settlement facilitated by the Ministry of Manpower."

As explained by lawyer Junimart Girsang, the workers therefore had no other choice than to sue PT Berita Media Buana Pers, director Rahim Sukasah, and Nirwan Bakrie, as commissioner of PT Bakrie Capital Indonesia (BCI), which is PT Berita Media's holding company.

The workers, Girsang continued, are demanding Rp 1 billion in material losses, which is the total of their unpaid salary for eight months. They are also demanding Rp 90 billion, or Rp 1 billion each, in nonmaterial losses.

The employees have also requested an asset preservation order on Nirwan's house in Simprug, South Jakarta, and Rahim's house in Cinere, also in South Jakarta.

Girsang also said that the workers had separately filed a complaint of embezzlement by the management to the police, in which both Rahim and Nirwan have been summoned for questioning.

Ating explained that the workers had actually filed a complaint against the management concerning the situation to the manpower ministry in January. In February, a tripartite agreement was reached, in which the management was required to pay a total of Rp 518 million in salaries and compensation fines to the workers.

"The management, however, has not adhered to the agreement yet, and has apparently been evading all questions from us about it," he claimed.