Over 6,400 bank employees laid off

JAKARTA (JP): The government move to close 16 banks will force as many as 6,439 employees into unemployment as the government, the banks' caretakers and owners could not find new employment positions for them.

Officials from Bank Indonesia and the Ministry of Manpower together with caretakers of the 16 closed banks yesterday evening held a meeting at the central bank's office to determine the fate of over 9,000 of the banks' employees.

The director of labor standards at the Ministry of Manpower, Sabar Sianturi, said caretakers should lodge their proposals on the planned dismissal of the 6,439 bank workers to the Center Team for the Settlement of Labor Disputes (P4P) by the end of this month.

"But we still call on caretakers and owners, if possible, to transfer these unfortunate people to their other companies," Sianturi said.

The government closed 16 banks earlier this month in an effort to clean up the financial sector under an International Monetary Fund-supervised economic reform package.

Yesterday's meeting was held following a statement by President Soeharto's half brother Probosutedjo, owner of the closed Bank Jakarta, that the government took responsibility for the bank's employees who had lost their jobs since the bank was closed.

Probosutedjo had filed a suit against Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad and Bank Indonesia governor J. Soedradjad Djiwandono for closing his bank.

Sianturi noted that about 3,000 employees of the closed banks had been transferred to other companies in the same group or ones employed by the caretakers to help them liquidate all of the banks' assets and pay for all of the banks' obligations.

He noted that all employees of the closed banks would still receive their November wages and at least three months severance pay at the end of this month.

"Remember the severance pay is a cash advance. It could be more than three-months, but it depends on the P4P team to decide," Sianturi said.

He said the P4P team should hand down its decision on the severance pay for those dismissed workers by the end of this year.

If the amount of the severance pay for certain employees exceeded a three-month pay, "the caretakers should place it as its highest priority," Sianturi said.

The deputy head of the banking supervision and development department at Bank Indonesia, Djoko Sarwono, said the central bank would provide the bridging finances to pay the November wages and the three-month severance pay for the closed banks' employees.

But for those entitled for more than a three-month severance pay, they would have to wait until assets of the closed banks were liquidated, Djoko said.

"They should not worry because, by law, they come first to be paid when the closed banks' assets are liquidated. Even tax obligations to the government would be settled as a secondary priority after them," he said.

He called on all employees of the closed banks, who were not employed by caretakers or by other companies, to stay home after they get their November wages and three-month severance pay at the end of this month.

"After they get their November wages and the severance pay, they should stay at home and not go to work as there is no work for them," Djoko said. (rid)