HongkongBank union executives dismissed

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)