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)