Fired workers turning to LBH for counsel

JAKARTA (JP): At least 10,000 dismissed workers from Greater Jakarta visited the capital's Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) between January and Nov. 18 to ask for legal advice in disputes with their employers, a lawyer said on Thursday.

The head of LBH Jakarta's labor division, Surya Tjandra, said the dismissed workers were part of a total of 16,655 workers who visited his office in search of help to settle disputes with their employers.

The 16,655 workers who visited LBH Jakarta's office were classified as having been involved in 438 labor disputes, including 201 cases dealing with dismissal problems, Surya said.

"Almost half of the workers who lost their jobs were dismissed by their employers because of the prolonged monetary crisis. It's the easiest reason for employers to fire their workers," Surya told The Jakarta Post.

Of the total number of cases handled by the institute, he said 25 dealt with workers who were forced by their employers to resign.

He said some of the disputes were settled amicably but others ended up in court.

He said that in helping to settle the disputes, the institute usually summoned the employers to discuss their problems together with the workers before taking the cases to court if they did not reach an agreement.

"Bringing a case to court is the last resort because it will take a long time for the courts to decide the case," he said.

Surya did not mention how many cases had been won by the workers and how many were still being processed by the courts.

But, he said, many of the cases had been settled after the employers were pressed by workers' demonstrations.

"Many cases turned out favorably for the workers after they staged demonstrations. This did not happen in previous years as demonstrations were rarely conducted," he said.

Surya said his office also handled 33 cases dealing with the sending of labor overseas, particularly to Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

He said that so far there were no specific laws or regulations protecting the rights of Indonesian migrant workers and their families.

The other labor cases supervised by the institute this year were linked to contract violations, suspensions, pensions, minimum wage violations, freedom to join worker unions and state worker insurance company through Jamsostek, he said.

By comparison, in the corresponding period last year, the institute supervised only 280 labor cases which involved 3,340 workers, he said.

He added that 248 of the cases had been settled, while the remaining 32 cases were still being handled by the institute. (jun)