Pertamina slashes employees

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)