Hotel workers demand management pay salaries

JAKARTA (JP): Dozens of Sari Pan Pacific hotel workers staged a rally in front of the four-star hotel's lobby on Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta on Monday, demanding that management pay their salaries, which have been unpaid since June.

The protesters were part of a group of some 100 employees who were suspended by the hotel after staging a protest last December.

The employees said they had been relying on their friends' charity to support their families, since the hotel stopped paying them three months ago.

"Those of us who have husbands or wives who are still working, are lucky because they can depend on their spouses. But others are depending solely on donations from our friends who still work in the hotel," Hera Dewi, an employee who used to work in the hotel's restaurant, told The Jakarta Post.

The hotel continued to pay the workers 50 percent of their salaries from December until April. In May, this was reduced to 25 percent of their normal salary. But since June the hotel has stopped paying them completely.

Most of the hotel's employees staged a six-hour protest in December over the management's decision to only pay an additional one-month's basic salary as the Idul Fitri holiday bonus (THR), instead of an additional two-month's basic salary as in previous years.

The protest ended after the management and the employees agreed to hold subsequent discussions about the bonus issue. The employees said that the management had declared that the protesting employees had not violated the manpower laws or the hotel's internal regulations, and would not be punished for their actions.

However, several days later, the management suspended 235 employees saying that they had violated the regulations by going on strike. By May 10, only 70 employees had been allowed to return to work at the hotel.

"But then the management harassed the other 165 to resign," employee Asri Sugiarti, 43, said adding that about 60 of them had already resigned.

"Those who resigned were only given a little compensation. A friend of mine who had worked here for 20 years was only given Rp 8 million," Asri added.

The Local Committee for Labor Disputes' Settlement (P4D) ruled that the suspensions should be lifted and that the hotel reemploy the workers. P4D also ruled that the employees were entitled to have their salaries paid in full since December.

The hotel's management decided to appeal, however, and brought the case to the State Administrative Court (PTUN).

"They can bring this case to wherever they want but we have the right to receive our salary because P4D has said so," Hera stressed.

Separately, director of marketing and communications at the hotel, Satria Wira, argued that the hotel's decision to stop paying the employees' salary was legal.

"An agreement between the management and the workers which was signed in October stipulated that the hotel would only have to pay an employee for the first six months following a suspension," Satria told the Post.

Satria also said that the decision to give only one-month worth basic salary bonus on December was in accordance with the company's financial capacity which was endorsed by the employees in an agreement.

"Unfortunately several employees incited their friends to go on strike," Satria added.

Satria also denied the allegations that the management had harassed the workers to resign.

"They resigned at their own will," Satria said.

The hotel will have its 24th anniversary in November. (jaw)