PPD workers want to meet minister

PPD workers want to meet minister

JAKARTA (JP): Some 40 employees of the state-owned transportation company PPD will go to the Ministry of Transportation on Dec. 14 to discuss PPD's management, which has refused to heed their complaints.

The employees, representing PPD's workers in the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI), want to meet with PPD management, said SBSI Chairman En Jacob Ereste in a press release yesterday.

The statement said the management had refused to talk with the employees about various problems, including illegal levies, salaries, better medical treatment and the tense relationship between them.

"That's why the workers want to meet the minister, since their request got no response. The unrest among the workers needs to be solved or something may happen," Ereste said.

The workers said in a written statement signed by R. Damanik and Anwar, the chairman and secretary of the SBSI transportation sector office, that bus crew members are fed up with illegal levies.

Illegal levies are imposed at the bus pools and on the roads, Ereste said. "Every time a driver takes and returns an operation order (Surat Perintah Jalan) he has to give money to the person in charge."

PPD staff working at the terminals tend to impose illegal levies on bus crew members, while police officers regularly extort the crew members on the road.

SBSI is an unrecognized labor union, which could complicate the workers' efforts to meet with ministerial officials next Thursday. The only union acknowledged by the government is the All Indonesian Workers Union, locally known as Serikat Pekerja Seluruh Indonesia, or SPSI. (sur)