ILO asks Shangri-la to reemploy workers

JAKARTA: The International Labor Organization (ILO) has asked the management of the five star Shangri-la Hotel to reemploy its dismissed workers.

ILO said in a press release over the weekend that it also urged the Indonesian government to make sure that all the fired workers were reemployed by the hotel.

It also said that the government should mount an investigation into the maltreatment of M. Zulrahman, the treasurer of the Shangri-la Hotel Independent Worker's Union (SPSM).

Valentinus Wagiyo, the chairman of SPSM, said that the ILO's decision had emphasized their rights and honor as workers and that he hoped the Shangri-la Hotel would reemploy them.

Valentinus is one of the seven former employees of Shangri-la who were ordered on Nov.1 by the South Jakarta District Court to pay some US$2 million in compensation for the losses they were accused of causing during their demonstrations against the hotel's management last year. --JP