Leftover food leaves hotel employee jobless

Leftover food leaves hotel employee jobless

JAKARTA (JP): A dismissal from work during this time of
economic hardship is a nightmare for anybody, particularly those
living in the capital, where the prices of goods and services
have skyrocketed.

But the prospect is more scary when it happens to a middle-
aged widow with two children.

Djuhro Rohana, 44, an employee in the house keeping staff at
the five-star Sari Pan Pacific hotel in Central Jakarta had to
face this grim fate.

For her, it was not only the loss of her job she was unhappy
with, but the way she was fired.

According to Rohana, she was dismissed on Oct. 19 last year
after a hotel security staff member caught her attempting to take
home leftover food from its restaurant: five cakes, three oranges
and two pears.

This has been confirmed by the hotel's management.

What upset Rohana the most was that her employers did not seem
to consider her 22 years of total devotion to the hotel on Jl.
M.H. Thamrin.

The loss of this job, for what Rohana sees as a trivial
reason, has drastically changed her life.

In a bit to survive and support her children -- one in
kindergarten and one a senior high school student -- Rohana has
started making local snacks, such as bakwan, to be sold by
relatives to their office colleagues.

In an interview with The Jakarta Post on Sunday, Rohana
recalled that she was about to leave the hotel one evening when
she saw a restaurant waitress packing leftover food to be
abandoned to the hotel's garbage container.

"We hotel workers usually expect leftover food," she said,
adding that many hotel employees ate restaurant leftovers.

When she asked the waitress if she could take home some of the
food, "the waitress gave her permission," Rohana said.

Her nightmare began when a hotel security employee, Djoko,
found the food in her possession.

Djoko then asked her to write a statement saying she had
stolen from the hotel.

"I thought the letter would be merely a warning letter," she
said, adding that she was expecting a suspension.

The following day, Anita, from the hotel's personnel
department, shocked Rohana with the news that she was fired.

"I kept on begging her not to dismiss me for such a trivial
matter and told her my commitment of working here for 22 years,
but the officer did not want to listen to me anymore," she said.

Anita insisted that she was fired, but said she would receive
an honorary allowance of Rp 100,000 (about US$12) per month,
Rohana said. It was not explained for how long she would be
entitled to this allowance.

Rohana opposed the hotel's decision and lodged complaints with
several official bodies, including the Jakarta Legal Aid
Institute. She has not received any payment from her allowance.

She has used her savings of Rp 3 million to provide for her
family's daily expenses and to start the business.

"I don't know how long my savings will last," she said.

Meanwhile, the hotel's marketing director, Satria Wira,
asserted that Rohana's dismissal was legitimate and followed all
legal procedures.

"Chapter 53 of the hotel's regulations stipulates that all
hotel staff members are prohibited to take any items from the
hotel," Satria told the Post on Monday at his office.

Bringing out hotel property in any form is categorized as a
serious offense to the regulations and violators would be
dismissed without warning, he said.

Satria admitted the hotel did not take into consideration
Rohana's 22-year service for the hotel.

"The company will collapse if the rules are not enforced," he
said, adding that Rohana's dismissal would discourage the other
670 employees from breaking the rules.

He also dismissed Rohana's demand to get her job back at the
hotel, unless the regional committee for labor dispute
settlements decided that Rohana should be re-employed at her
former workplace.

According to Rohana, she received strong support from her
fellow workers at the hotel as well as from the Jakarta office of
the Tourism Trade Union.

It is hard to determine who is in the wrong here, but Suryadi,
assistant executive of the house keeping department in the five-
star Sahid Jaya hotel on Jl. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, said on
Saturday that hotel employees were prohibited from removing all
forms of hotel property.

"Residual food is also included in the hotel's property," he
said. (01)