Ministry to look into PPD drivers' complaints

Ministry to look into PPD drivers' complaints

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Manpower has instructed its
local office to look into complaints by state-run PPD bus company
workers -- mostly drivers -- about poor working conditions, the
ministry's director for labor standards said recently.

The director, Sabar Sianturi, told The Jakarta Post yesterday
that the one-month long inquiry, starting this week, will observe
workers rights at the company as well as the effectiveness of the
company's civil servants corps (Korpri) in defending those
rights.

"We will take action if there is any violations found in the
implementation of those rights, such as insufficient pay on the
basis of current labor regulations," he said.

If it should be found that Korpri has not done its utmost in
defending the workers' rights, "we will force it to become a
mediator in discussing the workers' problems, as it should have
done," he said.

Sianturi said that these are the normal procedures to take in
the case of any irregularities in industrial relations in state-
run companies, rather than forming a union,.

"There is no chance of forming a workers union in PPD and
other state-owned companies," he said, adding that he had never
received any complaints from the drivers as they had claimed.

The workers claimed they need a workers union to channel their
interests and that Korpri, which incorporates the company's
management in its membership, has not been supportive enough in
its efforts.

The London-based International Transport Workers' Federation
promised last week to help PPD drivers form a union to defend
their rights. The workers earlier submitted their complaints to
the Ministry of Transportation, the SBSI, the House of
Representatives, Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirdja and the
National Commission on Human Rights.

However, Sianturi admitted yesterday that it was hard for
workers in state-owned or run companies to solve problems other
than those concerning their rights, such as disputes with
management regarding salary increases, as they have to submit
their complaints to a court of justice.

"As the court procedures are quite complicated and take time,
we are considering forming a workers' committee in the
transportation sector," he said.

The committee, he said, would consist of representatives of
the workers, Kopri and the management and would effectively
function as a workers union.

Currently there are three workers committees serving 97 out of
249 state-run companies in the sectors of oil and natural gas,
coal mining and agriculture, he said. (03)