Former Unibank workers demand severance and service payments
Former Unibank workers demand severance and service payments
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
More than 150 former employees of the recently-closed Unibank in
Medan, North Sumatra, have staged a demonstration, demanding the
bank's former management meet its obligations in the wake of the
bank's closure.
The demonstrators, who staged their protest at the now closed
bank building on Jl. MT Haryono, said the bank's former
management should give a guarantee that they would receive
severance and service payments in accordance with the law.
They said they would file a lawsuit against management if it
failed to meet their demands.
The publicly-listed Unibank was officially closed by the
central bank last Monday because of its worsening financial
situation following the channeling of massive loans to companies
belonging to the bank's former controlling owner Sukanto Tanoto.
Besides the demonstrators, hundreds of the bank's former
customers went to the building to seek an official explanation of
the bank's closure and the status of their deposits with the
bank. They also expressed disappointment at the failure of the
bank's management to provide an explanation of the fate of their
deposits.
Halim, a businessman in Kisaran, around 160 kilometers south
of the city, said he learnt of the bank's closure from a
television news broadcast, which prompted him to come to the city
to seek an official explanation from the former management.
"It has been impossible for me to gain a satisfactory
explanation from the police guarding the bank building," he said,
adding that he had been a customer of the bank since 1997, having
been attracted by its low administration fee and tax rate.
Halim said he would place his funds with a more credible bank
after the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), which took
over Unibank's financial obligations, returned his Rp 35 million
deposit.
Gunawan, who runs a convention business in the city, bemoaned
the bank's closure, which had forced him to cancel three deals
worth Rp 20 million during the week.
"The business deals had to be canceled because I could not
withdraw cash from the bank," he said, adding that the bank's
closure has disturbed his business's cash flow.
IBRA was expected to pay Unibank's obligation to its customers
on Nov. 5, 2001 as it had pledged.
Buha Tambunan, former member of the commissioner board of the
pulp and paper company PT Inti Indorayon Utama (IIU), in which he
is also a minority shareholder, said that the company had
deposited its funds with the bank.
He said around 50 percent of the third party liabilities of Rp
505 billion held by the bank belonged to Indorayon.
"Until 2000, Indorayon's funds had been deposited with the
closed bank, but I don't know whether that continued until the
bank's closure because I haven't held any position with the
company for the past year," he said.