labor body sides with PTDI in mass dismissal

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.