Pertamina slashes employees

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned oil company Pertamina has reduced its workforce by 13,000 to 34,000 over the past three years through its early retirement program, the company said recently.

Finance director Soegianto said last week Pertamina would continue the so-called golden handshake program to further improve the company's efficiency.

"We have saved much money through the program," Soegianto said in a one-day workshop.

A Pertamina public relations officer said about 70 percent of the 13,000 employees who had retired stopped working because of their age; the rest quit under the golden handshake program.

Those who retired under the program had a maximum education of senior high school.

More than 50 percent of Pertamina's employees were junior high school and elementary school graduates when the program started, the officer said.

"For instance, the public relations office alone had more than 50 drivers then. Now, all of them have left under the golden handshake program," she said.

She added Pertamina planned to further reduce its workforce to between 15,000 and 20,000 in the next five years on the recommendation of a foreign consultant hired by the company.

Those who received golden handshakes were given a pension plus additional remuneration, "which, if deposited in a bank, would earn as much interest per month as their monthly salary at Pertamina," she said.

Pertamina enjoyed an oil boom for more than two decades from the early 1970s but is anticipating difficult times ahead as Indonesian oil reserves are expected to decline significantly in the next 15 years. (jsk)