PPD bus drivers complain over ambiguous status
PPD bus drivers complain over ambiguous status
JAKARTA (JP): Some 40 people, mostly drivers, from the state- owned bus company PPD filed a complaint with the House of Representatives yesterday to seek help over their uncertain status and poor working conditions.
The people, who claimed to represent more than 12,000 workers from the 14 bus pools in the city, told Mohammad Zein of the Armed Forces faction that as members of the civil servant corps (KORPRI) they don't receive the help usually available to corps members.
In their statement yesterday, the workers revealed how the company provides insufficient allowances, and imposes unclear job assignments on them.
"If the company cannot afford to pay us, please don't force us to resign, but dismiss us with fair compensation in accordance with labor regulations," Johny Maulana, one of the drivers, told the legislator.
Drivers have to pay hospital bills and medical costs for their family members up front.
Reimbursement takes a long time, and in many cases only covers 30 to 50 percent, Maulana said.
He also said that unclear job assignments meant that many drivers just hang around the bus pools every day.
In their letter of complaint submitted to the House, the workers said that the management never pays attention to their educational background and working period in relation to a pay scale.
According to Maulana, the company has no fixed standards to pay senior and junior workers. Salaries range from Rp 50,000 to Rp 120,000 per month.
He said that most of the drivers have worked more than 10 years at the company but that they have been forced to work under conditions that keep them poor.
"I have been working for the company for 20 years with a salary of only Rp 88,000 ($40) per month," he said.
Maulana said when the salaries of civil servants and other employees increase, PPD workers don't get any raise.
"Are we civil servants, workers of a private company or a state-owned company?" Maulana asked.
The workers also complained yesterday that they have so far received only Rp 25,000 in bonuses for holidays, including Idul Fitri and Christmas.
The government normally gives bonuses of as much as one month salary.
The complainants told the legislator that they had in fact filed complaints with the PPD management as well as the Ministry of Manpower. But their pleas fell on deaf ears.
Legislator Mohammad Zein told the workers yesterday that as a state-owned bus company, PPD must have its own special working conditions, as stated in the contract.
He said he would check with the company and also take the complaints to other related institutions.(03)