Hospital employees urge fair recruitment

BOGOR (JP): At least 100 employees of Bogor Mental Hospital demonstrated at the hospital compound Wednesday, protesting the management's recruitment scheme as unfair and welfare facilities as poor.

The employees' spokesman, Riswar, said management had recruited seven new employees a couple of months ago without announcing any vacant positions before hand.

"They (the new employees) allegedly bribed the management between Rp 1.25 million and Rp 4 million for each of the positions," he added.

Riswar, however, did not disclose the identities and positions of the new recruits.

Responding to the protests, the hospital's director, Hidayat, vowed to carry out a thorough investigation regarding the alleged bribery.

"If it's true, the officials involved will be punished," he promised.

Hospital management was also criticized by the protesters for not taking proper care of the housing needs of employees.

According to the employees, management treated staff differently in providing house facilities.

Some employees, they said, had been given both official houses and loan facilities for modest houses by management while others could still not afford to get one house.

"I've been working here for 10 years and up to now, have no house to live in," said employee Wahju Hidayati.

She said management should have been able to build modest houses on a five-hectare plot belonging to the Ministry of Health located behind the hospital for employees who still have no permanent place to live.

According to Riswar, the ministry issued a decree in 1990 which transferred its ownership of a 24.3-hectare plot located around the hospital from the ministry to employees of Bogor Mental Hospital.

"But so far, only five hectares of the plot have been allocated for employee housing facilities and another four hectares for social and public facilities.

"I don't know what happened with the rest of the land," Riswar said.

Hidayat said that 10 hectares of the remaining land had been legally bought by private developer PT Rana Ikana, which had established the exclusive Bumi Menteng Asri housing estate on it.

"The developer had paid the compensation to the government (ministry) for the land," he said, giving no further explanation. (24/cst)