Job seekers 'must be compensated'

JAKARTA (JP): A lawyer and a city councilor urged the Ministry of Home Affairs or the city administration on Friday to pay compensation to hundreds of job seekers who were misled by a ministry positions vacant advertisement.

Apong Herlina, chairwoman of the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, and Sylviana Murni, a member of City Council Commission A for administrative affairs, said that as most applicants had spent at least Rp 10,000 (90 U.S. cents) to complete the requirements and extra on transportation, they deserved financial compensation.

On Thursday, about 150 applicants arrived at the city administration office only to find they had been misled by a newspaper advertisement placed by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Sept. 12 and a ministry circular.

According to the ad and circular, the ministry was to recruit 7,204 people to work in both central government and local administrations. The ad stated that the Jakarta administration alone would recruit 318 people and applications should be submitted on Thursday and Friday.

Notices posted at City Hall stating that there was no plan to recruit staff at the administration disappointed them.

Apong said the job seekers had a right to expect not to be fooled by the government. "They deserve compensation," she said, adding that the incident showed a lack of coordination between the ministry and the administration.

Apong said either the administration or the ministry should release a statement explaining the incident.

She said she could not justify the ministry's or administration's actions, saying "this incident increases people's distrust of the authority. If an official statement is misleading, which parties they should trust then?" she said.

Councilor Sylviana shared Apong's views, agreeing that the case had shown a lack of coordination between the ministry and the administration.

She said that after the matter was cleared up, one of the two parties should make a public apology through the media.

Another 50 applicants turned up at the administration's personnel department on Friday on the off chance that there were jobs available.

Some of them said they did not believe the administration had no plans to recruit staff.

"I still believe the ministry circular as I think it is official," said Vonny, one applicant. "How can an official ministry letter be erroneous?"

Even though a large "no vacancy" notice was visible at the office, applicants still waited for official statements to be released by the city administration. But no city official had met with them by midday.

One of the office's security guards said his superior did not want to meet them as a notice was enough. "I've tried to ask him to calm them down and ask them to go home, but he refused to do so," the guard, who asked not to be named, said.

"I just want to check whether the office has received my application letter just so I can feel satisfied. If it is just to be destroyed later, it doesn't matter," said another applicant, Mia. (ind)