Govt fails to mediate labor dispute at aircraft company

Govt fails to mediate labor dispute at aircraft company

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While the rally by thousands of state-owned PT Dirgantara
Indonesia (DI) workers to protest their layoff continues in
Bandung, the government has failed to bring together all the
parties in the industrial dispute in the aircraft manufacturing
company.

In a meeting organized by Minister of Manpower and
Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea, no decision was taken since key
parties failed to show up.

The company's workers sent around 100 delegates to the meeting
while the company's president Edwin Sudarmo and State Minister
for State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi did not attend. No reason
was given for their absence.

Nuwa Wea invited all relevant parties, including Laksamana, to
the meeting to seek a peaceful solution to the dispute.

The management and the workers were involved in a serious
labor dispute after the management made an unilateral decision to
lay off, with pay, 9,670 workers to help save the company from
chronic financial problems.

Laksamana and the Air Force, one of stakeholders in the
company, support the company president's decision while Nuwa Wea
and former president B.J. Habibie, a cofounder of the company
joined the workers in their rejection of it.

As of July 11, the plant has been tightly guarded by security
personnel and no workers have been allowed to enter.

Three members of the company's board of directors and all
employees rejected the decision saying that the decision was
invalid since it was made by only two of the five members of the
board of directors and the company's problems were not discussed
bipartitely at the company level.

Earlier, Laksamana supported PT DI management's decision to
suspend the company's operations and keep its workers at home to
cut company losses.

Speaking after the meeting, Nuwa Wea slammed the company
president's decision to lay off the employees, calling on
Laksamana to annul the decision.

"The decision is against the labor law. To make such a
decision, the board of directors should have talked about the
layoff with the workers in the first place," Nuwa Wea was quoted
by Antara as saying.

Chairman of PT DI Workers Union (FKK) Arif Minardi said after
the meeting the decision to lay off workers was illegal. "The
decision was solely made by the president director Edwin Soedarmo
without consultation with other members of the board of
directors, and therefore FKK should not abide by the decision,"
he said.

He was quick to add that the company's labor union would file
a lawsuit against what the employees called an arbitrary
decision. The labor union also accused the president director of
committing irregularities in running PT DI.

Meanwhile, thousands of PT DI employees continued to stage
rallies around the plant compound in Bandung and at the
provincial legislative council to reject the director's
unilateral decision.

They also called on the provincial legislature and the House
of Representatives to pressure the company to annul the decision
and help seek a peaceful solution to salvage the company.

Separately, Speaker of the House of Representatives Akbar
Tandjung said the decision made by PT DI president director was
shortsighted, as the company was one of Indonesia's strategic
industries.

"The dispute should be discussed in an open manner either with
the company's board of directors or the government institutions
overseeing the aircraft manufacturer," he told reporters in
Cirebon, West Java.

PT DI had done much to boost the country's image overseas for
its ability to manufacture aircraft, therefore its existence
should be maintained, Akbar said.

He said the House had decided to summon the state minister for
state enterprises and the management of PT DI to explain the
controversial decision.