N. Sumatra tobacco workers threaten boycott over pay

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Protesting plantation workers in North Sumatra have threatened to block an upcoming tobacco auction if their state-owned employer does not increase wages.

About 21,000 employees of PT Perkebunan Nasional (PTPN) II have accused the firm of paying less than the legal minimum wage.

More than 800 workers staged a rally on Wednesday at the Benteng ground in the provincial capital of Medan to demand better payment.

The protesters, from the regencies of Medan, Langkat and Deli Serdang, are paid Rp 279,000 each per month, though the provincial government set the minimum wage last November at Rp 464,000 per month.

Union leader Josem Ginting said if PTPN did not raise wages, the employees would join with German workers to boycott a tobacco auction planned for May in Bremen, Germany.

"We have coordinated with an alliance of labor groups in Germany to boycott the Deli tobacco auction if the demand by PTPN II's workers is not fulfilled," Josem, leader of the firm's Merdeka (independent) union, told The Jakarta Post.

Josem is being tried in the Medan District Court for allegedly beating a PTPN employee on November 16, 2000 while organizing a protest.

He said the protesters would step up demonstrations to keep the pressure for wage rises on PTPN.

He said the union's demands for higher wages had been rejected at several meetings with the company's directors since 2000.

Paiman, 42, a PTPN worker from Langkat, said he received Rp 250,000 in take-home pay each month, after insurance and other levies were taken out.

He said the low wage made it difficult for his family to survive. "I often owe money to friends or others to cover the lack of my family's living cost," Paiman said. "Life is so bitter to me."

Head of the North Sumatra manpower and transmigration office A. Aziz Zein Gumay said PTPN was breaching labor laws.

Aziz threatened to punish PTPN if it failed to comply with minimum wages, and promised to conduct a financial audit of the company.

Aziz told the Post that the matter was being handled by his office's labor dispute settlement committee.

"We will sanction the PTPN II if it does not pay the workers in line with the province's set wage."

Head of PTPN's human relations division, Legino, denied the company had broken the law.

But he refused to explain why the workers were paid less than the official wage. "It's the authority of the company's board of directors," he said.

Legino said the workers received several allowances, including food, electricity and housing, on top of their pay packets.