Factory workers seek severance payment

Factory workers seek severance payment

JAKARTA (JP): Forty people claiming to represent around 200 workers of PT Pandawa Mandala Sakti marched to the West Jakarta office of the Manpower Ministry on Thursday, demanding fair severance pay.

The workers, who said that they had also filed a complaint with the central office of the Ministry, claimed they were dismissed on Tuesday without prior notice.

"We were all shocked to hear the news after lunch on Tuesday that we all had been dismissed on the grounds that the company had gone bankrupt," one of the workers, who requested anonymity, said.

The workers said they had turned down the company's offer of pro rata severance payments.

PT Pandawa, which produces Penta and Inka socks for export, has been operating for six years.

The workers demanded yesterday that the company pay them at least twice the severance payment offered plus bonuses for those who had been employed for at least five years.

According to the demonstrators, they agreeed to postpone the payment until an agreement was reached with the management, after talks ended with the bosses turning down their request.

The company's executives, whom the ministerial officers tried to contact yesterday, failed to turn up.

But a company staffer said by phone yesterday that the company could not fulfill the workers' demands, "because we still have to pay some debts."

Manpower Ministry spokesman Hermanto R, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the amount of severance payment offered by the company was in accordance with the ministry's rules in cases where the company concerned is proven to be bankrupt.

"However, the company's management should first inform the workers about the company's financial troubles that have caused the dismissals," he said.(03)