Jakarta's water company problems continue

JAKARTA (JP): Some 200 employees from the city-owned tap water company PD PAM Jaya staged another protest here on Wednesday over a longstanding dispute.

The dispute concerns the status of over 2,400 employees who are now working for two foreign companies, namely British-based Thames Pam Jaya (TPJ) and French-based PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja), both of which are partners of PD PAM. The dispute has been dragging on for some two years.

Wednesday's protest reiterated the employees' demands that they be allowed to remain PD PAM employees and also be paid better salaries while working for the two foreign partner companies.

"We want to stay as PAM Jaya employees and we reject options that will only be detrimental to us as employees," protest spokesman Ifie S. Laili said during the rally which was held inside the company's compound at Jl. Penjernihan, Central Jakarta.

PD PAM management intends to present three options to its employees which, based on Wednesday's protest, will probably run into initial opposition from many of them.

The first option is to become employees of the foreign companies in the places where they are currently assigned, while retaining pension rights from the city administration. However, in return the workers would have to relinquish their civil servant status.

The second option is to remain as civil servants and be paid by the city administration while still being under the full management of the foreign companies.

The third option is to resign and receive severance pay.

But the protesters maintained that none of the options guaranteed better pay.

"What we want is to stay working for PD PAM Jaya and have a better salary, because we are afraid that if we work for the foreign companies there wil be no guarantees about our employment status," Ifie continued.

The city-owned water company began assigning a number of its employees to work for the two foreign companies after it signed a cooperation agreement with them in 1997.

Under the agreement, Thames Pam Jaya is charged with serving some 300,000 PAM Jaya customers in the eastern part of the city. Close to 2,400 of the workers are assigned to this company.

Meanwhile, Palyja supplies tap water to the western part of the city, serving some 210,000 customers.

Options

Palyja commissioner Bernard Lafrogne told The Jakarta Post that representatives of the two foreign companies, PAM Jaya and union members had already discussed the proposed options on Wednesday morning.

"In all of the three options, we, as foreign companies, guarantee that we will give the employees sufficient severance pay if they no longer want to work for our companies. Besides, maybe the employees have yet to hear the details of the options," Lafrogne said.

He added that the foreign companies would fork out some Rp 30 million for those who opted for the third option, that is to resign.

Lafrogne also raised concerns over the first two options saying that the city administration still had to clarify how much they would be willing to pay to the employees.

"We will try to settle all of the problems as soon as possible and it will not hamper public services," he stated.(dja)