Court rules against suspension of PTDI employees

Court rules against suspension of PTDI employees
OR
Court orders PTDI to rehire suspended employees

Yuli Tri Suwarni
The Jakarta Post
Bandung, West Java

The Bandung State Administrative Court ordered on Tuesday that
state-owned aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) revoke
its resolution suspending its 9,643 employees since July 11 this
year.

"The resolution must be revoked on the grounds that the
company violated the 2003 Manpower Law," said Arpani Mansyur, who
presided over the trial.

According to Article 146 of the Manpower Law, the management
of PTDI should have talked to the employees and the local
Manpower and Transmigration Office at least seven days before it
issued the resolution.

However, the company failed to do that, said Arpani.

"The company hastily issued the resolution and ignored and
violated the law. Therefore, the resolution on the suspensions
must be revoked," said Judge Arpani.

The decision was hailed by more than 3,000 employees and their
families, who attended the court hearing here on Tuesday.

Rachmawati Soekarnoputri, a sister and ardent critic of
President Megawati Soekarnoputri, was seen among the crowd of
employees. She gave a speech in support of them.

The employees and their families cheered upon hearing the
judge's ruling, but Arif Minardi, the chairman of PTDI's Worker's
Communication Forum, quickly warned the crowd that the employees
still faced a long and winding road to justice.

After the trial, lawyers for PTDI said they were considering
filing an appeal with the high court.

Meanwhile, the thousands of suspended employees expected to
resume work on Wednesday.

Arif said the ruling upheld the rights of the employees to
resume work.

"For us, the ruling is like a candle in the dark. It brings
hope to us that justice will finally be done in the country," he
said.

In a related development, the management of PTDI issued two
other resolutions on Monday, just one day before the court handed
down its ruling.

The first resolution withdrew the earlier resolution
suspending the 9,643 employees, while the second resolution
stipulated that the management of PTDI had fired 3,900 employees.

It was not known whether the 3,900 employees were part of the
9,643 employees who were previously suspended by PTDI management.
The company had more than 12,000 employees.

PTDI director for general affairs Muhammad Nuril Fuad said the
company had allocated Rp 130 billion (US$16.25 million) for
severance payments for the dismissed employees.

Fuad said the 3,900 employees had been fired on the grounds
that they had failed to register for a selection test to rejoin
the company.

He said the selection test had been attended by 5,200
employees, and the selection outcome would be announced on Oct.
10. Only 3,400 of the 5,200 will be rehired.

Those failing to pass the selection test will be enrolled in a
"redeployment center" program run by the company, he said.