Palyja reopens Muara Karang branch office

JAKARTA (JP): French-based Pam Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) water management company has had 10 of its 14 offices vandalized by members of the labor union of the city-owned tap water company PAM Jaya, but is ready to reopen its branch office in Muara Karang, North Jakarta.

Speaking in a press meeting, Palyja commissioner Bernard Lafrogne said on Monday that the office, which has been closed for three weeks because of damages and harassment by union members, was reopened again thanks to a group of some 20 residents who voluntarily decided to safeguard the compound.

"We were able to reopen our branch office due to the Penjaringan residents, who actually live a little far from here," Lafrogne said.

According to Lafrogne, Palyja would only pay the volunteers "cigarettes and meal" money.

Suarsat, head of the Penjaringan neighborhood community, who also attended the meeting, told reporters he and his fellow residents believed that it's their obligation to help the company to reopen its Muara Karang office again.

"Besides, after the office was vandalized Palyja delayed its plan to install clean water pipes in our neighborhood even though we had proposed it since 1998," Suarsat said.

Some of the 1,500 members of PAM Jaya labor union employed at Palyja have repeatedly demanded the cancellation of the water management deal between PAM Jaya and Palyja, saying that the negotiation was full of collusion, corruption and nepotism.

The same situation also is faced by English-based Thames Pam Jaya (TPJ) water management firm, which employs some 1,300 members of the union.

The two foreign companies claim to have substantial losses because some members of the workers union have harassed employees and vandalized the firms' assets for the past three weeks.

They refused to work but instead vandalized computers, taking operational vehicles, and threatening employees who decided to keep on working, executives of the companies said.

Public relations officer of Palyja, Uraini Umarjadi, said the continuous harassment has forced the firm to close 10 of its 14 branch offices.

"Currently, we only operate branches on Jl. Latumeten, Jl. Tomang, Jl. Prapanca, and Jl. Perjuangan," Uraini told reporters late last week.

The closure of most of the firm's offices left customers uncomfortable as they have had to pay their monthly bills at the four remaining offices and a few other appointed locations, such as post offices, Bank Bukopin, and Palyja headquarters at Plaza Senayan, she explained.

"The closures have resulted in a 75-percent drop in our (monthly) revenue since many of the customers were unable to pay the bills on time," she added, without giving an exact figure.

The company will not charge penalties to customers who couldn't pay their bills on time, Uraini said.

"It wasn't their fault," she said.

The company supplies tap water to western parts of the city, serving some 210,000 customers, ranging from residential houses to hotels, factories, offices and shopping centers.

Similar problems also occurred to the TPJ, which serves some 300,000 customers in the eastern part of the city.

"We lost some Rp 3 billion to Rp 4 billion (US$ 375,000 to US$ 625,000) from our monthly Rp 18 billion revenue," TPJ's spokesman Ramses Simanjuntak was quoted as saying by Antara news agency recently.

"We've closed all of our 13 branch offices and 20 project offices and now operate from 39 offices we just rented," he added.

"The harassment has obstructed our plan to expand our service to some 15,000 new customers as members of the union prevented our contractors' workers from doing the construction," Uraini said.

Ramses said the problem also temporarily halted TPJ's target to get some 2,500 to 3,000 new customers per month.

"Our contractors cannot work under such intimidation," he said.

Uraini, however, said: "We won't give any punishment to the defiant workers although they aren't working properly."

Separately, city spokesman Muhayat said all investors need to have protection.

"City administrators will give serious attention to complaints lodged by the businesses here, especially if they provide public service in cooperation with the city administration through PAM Jaya," he said.

"We will also coordinate the problems with city police," he added. (09/nvn)