Over 6,400 bank employees laid off

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)