Journalists fired for joining strike

JAKARTA (JP): Six reporters of the Kapital business news tabloid were dismissed on Monday for joining a strike asking for clarification of their employment status, a statement said on Tuesday.

The reporters' representative, Dandhy D.L., and lawyer Surya Tjandra said the six newsmen were accused of provoking the strike, which had been held since Dec. 22, with some 24 employees taking part.

"The employees did not have a clear working status, although they had worked for one year. The management's promise to clarify their status never realized," Surya said in a written statement, copies of which were made available to the media.

He added that due to this, the employees had worked without insurance and had not received their basic rights as employees.

Surya said the six reporters were the ones who continued the strike, while the rest had returned to work.

"The tabloid's management said the decision to dismiss the six reporters was because of their poor work performance, although an evaluation had never been conducted," he said.

Kapital's chief editor Nasir Tamara refused to comment. He, instead let the tabloid's human resources manager, Diana, answer questions.

Diana said the dismissal bore no relationship to the strike.

"It's simply because of their poor work performance," she said, adding that a performance evaluation was conducted every three months.

"It should have been clarified by their superiors whether the reporters always received their three-month evaluation," she said.

Kapital was launched on Nov. 30, 1998 by PT Bajomas Nusapermata. It currently has 70 employees. (ind)