Garuda says dispute with technicians won't affect flights
Garuda says dispute with technicians won't affect flights
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The country's flag carrier Garuda Indonesia assured passengers on
Thursday that services would continue normally despite the
ongoing dispute with some technicians.
Garuda spokesman Pujobroto said that it had 2,361 fully
licensed technicians to ensure normal flights.
He was responding to earlier press reports quoting Garuda
technical director Richard Budihadianto as saying on Wednesday
that starting July 31, 537 Garuda technicians would not be
allowed to enter the compound of PT Garuda Maintenance Facility
Aero Asia (GMFAA). GMFAA is a Garuda subsidiary handling aircraft
maintenance.
The technicians, grouped under the Aircraft Technicians
Association (ITPU), had protested Garuda's decision to transfer
the airline's technicians to GMFAA, a relatively new subsidiary
set up in August 2002 as part of a restructuring plan to allow
the ailing Garuda to focus on its core business, flight service.
They had even threatened to strike in May during a long
weekend holiday when Garuda was busy with a high number of
passengers.
Garuda has shrugged off the protest as a greater number of
technicians were ready to join GMFAA.
Garuda has set a July 31 deadline for the technicians to fill
in their transfer forms and submit them to GMFAA.
The protesting technicians said they had declined to join
GMFAA, not because they were afraid of salary cuts or a possible
layoff in the future, but because they feel more proud working
for Garuda.
The protesters had also said that GMFAA had no clear
objectives and plans.
Meanwhile, Pujobroto said that Garuda had never issued a
policy banning them from entering the GMFAA compound.
He said that as of 8 a.m. Thursday, only 389 technicians had
not yet submitted their transfer forms.
Earlier this month, some of the protesting technicians had
told the press that Garuda management had embezzled some Rp 15
billion (US$1.7 million) each month, and had asked the Supreme
Audit Agency (BPK) to conduct an audit. But no progress has been
reported since.
Garuda has been forced to take tough restructuring measures to
help the financially weak airline survive the current industry
troubles.
Garuda, which owes around $89.4 million to foreign creditors,
earlier this week reported that net profit in the first quarter
of this year was only Rp 32.77 billion, way below the initial
target of Rp 116.81 billion.