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.