Fired workers seek assistance from LBH

Fired workers seek assistance from LBH

JAKARTA (JP): Eleven employees of the Jakarta branch of the
state-owned PT Indah Karya have sought help from the Jakarta
Legal Aid Institute (LBH) over their dismissal.

The employees were relieved of their jobs on Aug. 21 on the
grounds that the company has been continuously suffering losses
and the sacking was in line with the management's policy of
rationalization, the Jakarta office of the institute said in a
statement on Wednesday.

The company distributed severance pay to some of the dismissed
workers. However, a problem arose when the company gave severance
pay to some employees whose wages were below the regional minimum
wage regulated by the Ministry of Manpower.

The amount of severance pay the company's management gave to
these employees was based on their basic wages, and not based on
the component of the wage total, as regulated by the manpower
ministry.

PT Indah Karya is one of the state-owned companies dealing
with providing consultancy services for geotechnical planning and
mapping, which is under the auspices of the Ministry of Public
Works. The Ministry could not be reached for comments yesterday.

The company's headquarters is located on Jl. H. Juanda in
Bandung, with branches in Jakarta, Surabaya, Ujungpandang and
Medan.

Last month, the company, on the grounds of conducting a
rationalization program, dismissed no less than 84 of its
employees, including 11 at the Jakarta branch, 10 at the
Ujungpandang branch, eight in Surabaya and 55 at its Medan
offices.

The Jakarta branch of LBH said up to now, no solution to the
problem has been reached in favor of the sacked workers. The mass
dismissal has further spawned prolonged restlessness among the
other workers still being employed by the company at its
headquarters, as well as in its branches.

One of the dismissed employees in the Medan office has
reportedly brought his case to the National Commission on Human
Rights.

The nucleus of the problem besetting the company's employees
began when the board of directors issued a set of regulations on
May 2, 1994 that put employees at a disadvantage.

One of the regulations has given rise to deep concern and
uneasiness on the part of the employees, because it contains
drastic changes to the status of an employee, thus reducing the
rights of the workers.

Before the new regulations were announced, all employees were
entitled to medical allowance, pension pay and other fringe
benefits.

Under the new regulations, all these fringe benefits were
dispensed with, much to the chagrin and disappointment of the
employees.

The dismissed employees also questioned another regulation
which requires certain employees to sign a working agreement
every year if they are still needed by the company, despite the
fact that the workers were not hired on a contractual basis.

Under this regulation, the management can arbitrarily dismiss
any worker at any time, regardless of how long they have been
working at the company.

Several of the dismissed employees had been working for the
company for more than 15 years. (bas)