HI group to dump 1,300 employees

HI group to dump 1,300 employees

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The management of Hotel Indonesia and Inna Wisata Hotel, PT Hotel
Indonesia Natour (HIN), is adamant it will dismiss around 1,300
employees of both hotels.

The company's president director, A.M. Suseto, told a press
conference on Monday that the planned build, operate and transfer
(BOT) agreement with investor PT Cipta Karya Bumi Indah (CKBI), a
subsidiary of cigarette giant Djarum Group, would be in jeopardy
if the new management was obliged to accommodate the employees.

"We will continue the dismissal process, while the cases of
workers who reject dismissal will be settled through another
procedure based on regulations," he said.

The two hotels stopped accepting guests on April 15 and will
fully stop operation on April 30.

Suseto said the severance packages of dismissed workers would
be 150 percent of that stipulated in Article 156 of Law No.
13/2003 on manpower.

Hotel Indonesia workers union president Sahrul Sidiq reject
the dismissals on behalf of the workers.

"We have worked here a long time, so why would the management
abandon us when it wants to upgrade our workplace?" said Sahrul,
who led his colleagues in another protest rally in the Hotel
Indonesia compound.

Suseto said that although there was no guarantee the 1,300
hotel workers would be employed by the new investor when
renovations were completed, they would be among the first to be
considered by the new management for recruitment.

Kastorius Sinaga, PT HIN commissioner, argued that the new
hotel and the supermall, to be built on the site of Inna Wisata
Hotel, would create around 5,000 jobs.

The government, as owner of both of the hotels, has
principally agreed on the takeover. However, the BOT agreement
has yet to be signed by PT CKBI and PT HIN.

According to Suseto, PT CKBI was the only investor ready to
invest US$150 million in the project after three foreign
companies withdrew from bidding due to security concerns in the
country.

Built in the 1960s, Hotel Indonesia was facing the possibility
of being closed next year if no investor had been found because
the management could not afford to improve the existing
facilities of the four-star hotel.