Labor union supports change in oil labor system

Moch N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia's leading labor union welcomed the government's plan to improve standards of employment in the country's oil and gas sector on Thursday, saying that the unjust treatment of workers, in particular temporary workers, has been rampant throughout the industry.

Andi William Sinaga, secretary general of the Indonesian Labor Union (SBSI), which is known for its strong presence among the oil and gas workers of the country, called on the government to end the injustices as soon as possible.

"Many oil and gas companies, as well as their sub-contractors, have often recruited workers on a temporary basis, and arbitrarily extended their contracts on repeated occasions so that the workers never get permanent employment status," Andi told The Jakarta Post. "This is inhumane"

Andi added that, within such a scheme, oil and gas companies and their sub-contractors have been able to cut their costs at the expense of many workers.

Abuses of the rights of temporary workers have taken place not only in the oil and gas industry, but in other industry sectors as well.

It is for this reason that the government should prohibit any companies from recruiting workers on a temporary basis, Andi said.

SBSI was blamed for organizing several big labor strikes in the past several years, including one at American oil and gas companies PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia in Riau, and Vico Indonesia in East Kalimantan.

"The main purpose of the strikes was to force the companies to stop employing workers on temporary basis, and instead give them a permanent status," Andi said.

Andi made the statement following concerns voiced by Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea on Wednesday regarding the fate of temporary workers in the oil and gas industry.

Jacob said that he had proposed to the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro to revoke Decree No. 5/1995, issued by Ministry of Manpower on temporary working agreements in oil and gas companies as part of plans to improve the sector's working system.

The decree, he said, has loopholes which allow oil and gas companies to employ workers on a temporary basis for as long as 20 years. It is a decree, he said, that fails to respect workers as human beings.

Under the Decree No. 3/1995 issued by the Ministry of Manpower, a company can only sign up temporary workers for two years and extend the contract to one year at the maximum.

Meanwhile, Caltex on Thursday denied reports by The Jakarta Post that the company had 20,000 temporary workers, as opposed with 6,000 permanent workers.

The Post mistakenly attributed the statement to Caltex's spokesman, Renville Almatsier, when it was actually came from an official of the state oil and gas company Pertamina, who wished to remain anonymous.

"Caltex does not have 20,000 temporary workers. Caltex has a total workforce of over 6,500 permanent employees. In fact, we changed our remaining temporary employees over to permanent status in 2001. Today, we have no temporary employees.

"Our business partners, who work under various contracts of our operations, have over 23,000 employees," Renville said in a statement on Thursday.