Busway balks at rehiring drivers
Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The operator of the capital's TransJakarta Busway service, PT Jakarta Express Trans (JET), confirmed on Saturday that it would not reemploy five of its drivers who resigned, although they were now considering working again for the company.
"It would be quite impossible to accept them back since it was they themselves that decided to leave," PT JET operations director, Payaman Manik Raja, told The Jakarta Post.
Manik, however, was not sure yet whether the five had already submitted a request to work again, or whether they were among the 70 new applicants the company had received since their resignation.
Last Monday, the five busway drivers decided to quit, claiming their salary was not commensurate with their work, which comprised an eight-hour daily shift driving back and forth between Blok M in South Jakarta and Kota in West Jakarta.
The drivers, two from the PPD bus company, and three from the Pahala Kencana bus company, claimed they got more in their previous jobs.
Each of the busway drivers is said to receive a total of Rp 2,010,000 (US$236) per month, comprising a basic salary of Rp 700,000, a Rp 200,000 family stipend, a Rp 150,000 professional stipend, and Rp 40,000 for each shift -- totaling 24 shifts each month -- that they work.
Despite the drivers' claim, their intention to return is somewhat acceptable since the promised salary is bigger then what other regular bus drivers usually earn.
A driver of Mayasari Bhakti bus, serving the Lebak Bulus- Bekasi route, claimed he could only get Rp 50,000 out of the daily revenue target set by his company. The revenue target varies according to each route, which is Rp 1 million in his case.
The company, he said, gives monthly salaries as a mere bonus if the drivers are able to meet the daily revenue target for a month.
A PPD bus driver serving the route between Lebak Bulus and Rawamangun said he received Rp 700,000 as a monthly salary, the amount of which was sometimes reduced to pay for any damage to the bus where he was at fault. He claimed that he often received his salary late as the company was still mired in financial difficulties.
He is not always able to fulfill the company's daily revenue target of Rp 800,000 for normal working days and Rp 550,000 for weekends and holidays. "I was even short by Rp 100,000 in the last two weeks," he told the Post, pointing at the overlapping route with the busway as the culprit.
"And I think people would still prefer to use the busway even when it is no longer free, as its buses are comfortable, with no street singers or food hawkers on board."