PPD drivers protest poor treatment

JAKARTA (JP): Dozens of drivers from the state-owned bus company PPD staged a peaceful protest in front of the PPD head office in Halim, East Jakarta, yesterday, to demand better treatment from the company management.

The drivers, who called themselves the PPD Drivers Solidarity, also demanded the resignation of the board of directors and the heads of the company's nine bus pools.

Joni, a driver, said the company never paid attention to the welfare of its employees.

"We do not get our full rights as employees. The company never explains to us why we do not get what we are entitled to, including proper salaries, health insurance and death allowances," he said.

He said the company had cut contributions to drivers' pension funds and insurance schemes, and consistently failed to fulfill its responsibility to pay hospital fees for drivers who are ill.

"We have to pay all the fees ourselves and then ask the company to reimburse us. Sometimes one year goes by before we get the money back," Joni, who has been a PPD driver for 22 years, said.

Another driver named Ahmad said that hospitals were no longer willing to admit PPD drivers as patients because they do not believe the bus company will pay for the treatment.

"A hospital where I went told me that they would prefer to be paid in cash instead of through my health insurance because they anticipated problems in claiming the money back from PPD," he said.

The drivers also demanded an increase in their rice allowance and basic salaries.

Joni said that his allowance and salary failed to cover his daily needs.

"A driver with three children is entitled to a 50-kilogram rice allowance, which is given in the form of a monthly cash payment. But they only give us Rp 37,000. What rice in the world can we buy with that money?" he said with an angry tone in his voice.

Basic salary

Joni also complained about the basic salary of Rp 4,600 per day which is well below the government standard of around Rp 7,000.

The drivers said they had tried to talk through problems with the board of directors dozen of times, however senior company officials had refused to meet them on every occasion.

Head of public relations for PPD, Moch. Khamim, told reporters that no directors were available to meet with the drivers yesterday.

"The directors do not want to meet with the drivers because the latter did not follow the correct procedures for staging their protest. The drivers must deliver their demands through their superiors in each pool," he said.

Khamim admitted that the company had been beset by several problems recently, mostly related to its financial condition.

"PPD suffered losses of around Rp 29.7 billion in 1996 and Rp 18.9 billion last year," he said.

The losses were caused by several factors, including the company's inability to optimize operations because it employed too many drivers for the small number of road-worthy buses which it owns.

"Around 900 drivers have to work shifts to operate 700 buses. We actually have 1,200 buses but the remaining 500 are not in good condition," he said.

Khamim said that 85 percent of the company's 1,200 buses were between five and 15 years old.

"We can't meet our daily target revenue of Rp 200 million. We only get around Rp 150 million," he said.

Khamin rejected accusations that the company did not care about driver welfare, saying that it always tried to fulfill its responsibilities to the drivers. (cst)