labor body sides with PTDI in mass dismissal

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Committee for Labor Dispute Settlements (P4P) has decided to accept the decision by ailing state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) to dismiss a total of 6,650 workers, meaning that the process of settling the case is sure to drag on.

In a letter explaining the decision, which was dated Jan. 29 and signed by P4P Chairman Sabar Sianturi, but only handed to the dismissed workers on Tuesday, the committee explained that it was siding with PTDI management's decision to fire 6,650 of 9,350 workers due to its ailing financial straits, but then ordered PTDI to hand over a number of payments that go well above and beyond the stipulations in the labor law.

According to the letter, a copy of which was made available for media outlets, "First of all, PTDI management must pay the severance and service payments, but twice as much as the amount required by Chapter 156 of Law No. 13/2003. The management is also required to pay the dismissed workers allowances for their 2003 annual leave, housing and bonuses. Besides receiving pension funds under social security programs, the dismissed workers will also receive their monthly salaries which have been withheld since the dismissal in July 2003."

The management has also been ordered to submit the personal data of dismissed workers to the manpower and transmigration office in Bandung so that the agency can better monitor the whole process.

The letter did not go into much detail as to why P4P accepted the mass dismissal and turned down the workers' demand to reemploy them, except to allude to economic realities, while Sabar and other members of P4P were not available for comment.

The workers are enraged by their dismissal, because they say it is an open secret that the company's financial problems were all caused by mismanagement, corruption and inefficiency, not by overstaffing.

The government has put its weight behind the management's decision to close down several units deemed unprofitable in the holding company to let it concentrate on its core business.

It has also injected funds to allow the company to resume operating, and provided US$5 million to help with severance and service payments.

Thousands of dismissed workers, demonstrating at the manpower ministry criticized the P4P decision and said they would take their case all the way to the Supreme Court if need be.

"With the decision, we've been betrayed by P4P and we will file a lawsuit at the State Administrative Court. And, as a last resort, we will appeal to the Supreme Court if we are defeated at the State Administrative Court," Chairman of PTDI Trade Union Arief Winardi said.

The workers won a case at the State Administrative Court in Bandung in December when they sued the management over the latter's July 2003 decision to give them their pink slips.

They said they would not even bother asking the manpower minister to veto the P4P decision since they considered him of the same ilk as the others in government who had supported management.

Manpower and Transmigration Minister Jacob Nuwa Wea called on PTDI's management and dismissed workers to accept the P4P decision because the massive labor dismissal was inevitable.

"What reasons the workers have raised to oppose the decision are no longer relevant because the government is not able to pay them. The important thing is that the management must respect workers' rights and pay severance and service payments in accordance with the law," he said.

He added that the management could not breach the law, otherwise the management would now be taken to court.

President of state-owned PT Jamsostek Achmad Djunaidi said his company was ready to pay a total of Rp 56 billion (US$6.6 million) in pension funds for the dismissed workers, but may now have to pay out well over Rp 300 billion due to the extra payments ordered by P4P.

The 6,650 workers are now set to receive a minimum of Rp 50 million each in severance and service payments and pension funds as the lowest-ranking workers at the company were paid between Rp 1.5 and Rp 2 million per month.