Court upholds staff dismissal
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Administrative High Court upheld on Wednesday a decision by the Indonesian-Hong Kong textile joint venture PT Tyfountex Indonesia, based in Surakarta, Central Java, to dismiss 1,772 of its 8,000 workers.
Presiding judge Marcus Lande said that the court was also ordering the Labor Disputes Arbitration Board at the Ministry of Manpower to issue a new decree which approved the dismissal.
"The company has effected the dismissals in line with the existing manpower regulations," Lande said.
He said that the court's decision was made in response to a lawsuit filed by the company in October in which the firm asked the court to reject the arbitration board's decision, which ordered the company to reemploy the dismissed workers.
He said the dispute started with refusal by a worker, identified as Abdul Latief, and his friends to resume work after conducting a mass demonstration to demand an increase in their wages in July last year.
Even though the management had agreed to increase monthly wages to an average of Rp 146,300 a month, compared to the mandated minimum pay of Rp 130,000, as of August, the workers still rejected it.
The protracted labor dispute culminated in a massive demonstration by around 700 workers at the manpower ministry here for five days in September.
Tyfountex, an integrated textile company which started operating in Surakarta in 1974, exports most of its fabrics and garments. Its annual export revenue is around US$60 million.
The company's lawyer, Jack R. Sidabutar, said the court's decision was unexceptionable and there was no surprise.
"We have asked the workers to resume work but they refused. We have had a headache about it," Jack said.
Meanwhile the workers' lawyer Christina Rini from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute and arbitration board's lawyer Joko Mursito have decided to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
Several workers were visibly upset with the decision, saying that the court had only considered the company's lawsuit without taking into consideration the workers' testimonies. (jun)