Dismissed cabbies protest to human rights body
Dismissed cabbies protest to human rights body
JAKARTA (JP): Eleven employees of Gamya Taxi and their families filed a complaint with the National Commission on Human Rights yesterday over their dismissal by the company for trying to form a workers' union.
The employees told two members of the commission, Secretary- General Baharuddin Lopa and Brig.Gen. (Ret) Roekmini Koesoemo Astoeti, that the visit was a last ditch effort at achieving justice.
"We have filed reports on the matter with the Jakarta office of the manpower ministry and the main office of the Ministry of Manpower itself. But even after seven months they have failed to settle it," Novry Syamsuddin, spokesman for the delegation, told the commission.
He said the ministry's Jakarta office had failed to achieve open negotiations between workers and the company because PT Gamya officials refused to show up for the four meetings arranged by the office.
"There is nothing we can do but complain to the commission because we cannot find jobs in other taxi companies," Novry said, adding that most of them have had to sell their houses just to survive.
He said the management of PT Gamya, a subsidiary of Blue Bird Taxi, has told other taxi companies, as well as the organization of land transportation businessmen, not to accept them because they are troublemakers.
The management of Gamya Taxi could not be reached for comment.
The drivers were among the 40 employees that were dismissed by PT Gamya Taxi for allegedly organizing a strike that crippled the company's activities in July last year. More than 200 employees of the transportation company, many of them drivers, went on strike at the taxi pool in Condet, East Jakarta, to protest against the company's refusal not to allow them to form a workers' union.
He said that the management rejected the formation of a workers' union because there was already drivers' corps which could settle any problem. "But the corps is not functioning to defend us," Novry said.
Lopa told the delegation that the commission will have to study the matter carefully.
"You have to be patient because the commission will have to study the case first, but you also have to continue efforts to settle this matter through the Ministry of Manpower," Lopa said.
Novry explained that the main reason for wanting to form a workers' union was to change the management system in which drivers should resign from the company after three years and reapply as workers for another three years.
"This is unfair and workers think that a union is the right answer to improve our welfare, but unfortunately the management disagreed to this, saying that the setting up of a union in the company would only cause unrest," he said.
Novry told the commission that of the 138 drivers who signed the petition to form a workers' union, only 38 are still working at the company. (yns)