HongkongBank union executives dismissed

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Manpower's arbitration body has agreed to a request from the management of The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd. to dismiss all 11 executives of its union following a prolonged dispute.

The decision, dated Sept. 30, was sent by the arbitration body on Oct. 9 to both parties and was received Monday.

"We are considering whether to appeal," Ugianto, the union's chairman, said yesterday.

The body, chaired by I Wayan Nedeng, said the 11 unionists were responsible for organizing a protest staged by employees in April which violated procedures because the employer did not receive prior notice.

"However, the employees' violation cannot be disassociated with the attitude of the employer, which always stalled and lacked responsiveness to the union's request for negotiations on the expired collective labor agreement."

"Therefore, the employees' violation cannot be categorized as a major offense," the decision said.

The justification for permitting the management to dismiss the workers was based on the body's judgment that "work relations between employer and employee are no longer in harmony".

Apart from Ugianto, the dismissed union executives were Barry S. Moechtar, Joned C. Saksana, Wilfridus Leba, Mustafa Adnani, Ferdinand K. Tamba, Robert H. Kastanya, Jonathan I. Iskandar, Rismauli Siahaan and Saeful Tavip.

In the 29-page decree, the body cited both the management and the union's versions of the dispute.

Among other things, the management charged that the union had expanded the dispute beyond the issue of the collective labor agreement to aspects of "national stability regarding political, economic, security and foreign investment".

Among the union's "irresponsible measures" were the sending of letters to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Brussels, Belgium and to the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employers in Geneva, Switzerland.

The contents "discredit the employer and the government when the arbitration body was working towards a settlement".

On the other hand, the union said the management had introduced a voluntary retirement scheme by offering pensions to employees, despite a ruling by the arbitration body on July 22 which ordered the bank to reinstate its workers involved in the strike.

The body also ordered the management to immediately pay in cash the pensions entitled to the workers. (anr)