Jayamix to dismiss guards after industrial dispute

JAKARTA (JP): Concrete manufacturing company PT Jaya Readymix, an Australian-Indonesian joint venture, has decided to terminate the contracts of 50 security guards as of Aug. 30, a company executive said yesterday.

The company president Greg Curtis announced the decision during a meeting with the guards, who had insisted on meeting him to discuss a wage increase, overtime payments and registration with the Jamsostek social security program.

Curtis said the company -- also known as Jayamix -- plans to select and hire its own security guards.

The current security guards are provided by PT Ginde Jaya Purna Sejati, a company which specializes in the supply of security guards.

Curtis did not explain if the security guards were replaced because of their demands.

Two hours before the meeting, the security guards gathered in the lobby of the company's head office on Jl. Warung Buncit Raya in South Jakarta and issued a statement of their demands, including an increase in their monthly salaries from the current level of between Rp 120,000 and Rp 130,000 to Rp 172,500, the official minimum wage until Aug. 1 this year.

A spokesman for the group, Suwardi, said the company never paid overtime to the guards, who work 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

The guards have been working with the company for between two and 10 years.

Manpower regulations state that the official working week should consist of an eight hour day, six days a week, with one day off, Suwardi said.

Any additional hours should be classified as overtime, he argued.

The security guards, accompanied by lawyers from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), demanded a meeting with Curtis, who eventually received them at 11:45 a.m.

Curtis seemed angry with the protesters and said they should have made an appointment to come and see him.

"I had a big boss from Australia here. You embarrassed me. That's rude," he told the protesters and lawyers.

When asked to comment on Curtis' decision, Don Hampri Can, a lawyer working to help the protesters, said dismissal would be acceptable only if adequate severance pay was offered.

Suwardi said the security guards did not realize they were not directly employed by Jayamix.

"What we do know is that we applied directly to this company for a job," he added.

Don said the Ministry of Manpower had confirmed that the security guards were Jayamix employees.

The security guards staged the first protest over working conditions in March. (jun)