Labor protest paralyzes Caltex

Labor protest paralyzes Caltex

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru, Riau

Activities at the offices of PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia in Riau
province came to a complete halt on Tuesday as thousands of
workers of one of its contractors staged a protest demanding
higher severance pay.

Close to 4,000 workers of PT Tripatra, a contractor of Caltex,
a United States oil company, blocked all roads to the PT Caltex
offices in Pekanbaru and Duri, some 150 kilometers north of
Pekanbaru, preventing about 650 employees of PT Caltex in both
offices from going to their workplaces.

Security personnel were deployed to guard the two offices.
They blocked all roads leading to the Caltex officers to prevent
anything untoward from happening. They were also guarding vital
installations in the compound.

Roads leading to the Caltex employee housing complex in
Pekanbaru were also blocked by security officers.

The protesters demanded that PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia be
held responsible for the fate of over 3,700 workers PT Tripatra
plans to lay off due to a significant decrease in construction
orders from PT Caltex.

"Caltex should also be held responsible for the fate of the
3,700 Triputra workers," said labor leader Dian Iskandar.

The management of PT Tripatra has already talked to the
affected workers, offering them a voluntary redundancy scheme
under which each laid-off worker is to receive severance pay of
up to Rp 27 million.

The workers, however, rejected the offer, arguing that the
compensation offered by PT Tripatra is too little.

They alleged that the employees of other Caltex contractors
who were laid off had received up to Rp 100 million each in
severance pay.

Chairman of the Tripatra Employees Communication Forum, B.
Sipahutar, said on Tuesday that they would mobilize more workers
if their demands went unheeded.

"This is a big problem affecting the lives of some 3,700
workers," he said.

Sipahutar accused Riau manpower and transmigration officials
of being inconsistent in fighting for the rights of Tripatra
employees.

Sipahutar particularly pointed to moves by officials who sent
letters to some Tripatra employees urging them to accept the
voluntary resignation scheme proposed by Tripatra.

PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia Communications and Media Relations
Manager Hanafi Kadir told The Jakarta Post Tuesday that the oil
company's offices in Duri and Pekanbaru were completely paralyzed
as the two areas were fully under the control of the protesting
workers.

He said some 650 employees of Caltex could not come to work on
Tuesday.

According to Hanafi, the workers' demand that Caltex be held
responsible for the fate of the 3,700 workers its contractor
wanted to lay off was absurd as the company had no employment
relations with them.

"The relations between Caltex and Tripatra is not employment
contract relationship, so Caltex cannot be held responsible for
the workers' fate.

"The workers have to address their demands to the management
of Tripatra directly, not Caltex," Hanafi said.