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.