PT DI agrees to meet demand by employees for more allowances

BANDUNG (JP): Responding to employee pressure, the commissioners of the state-owned aircraft industry PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI) promised on Friday to have one of the company's directors replaced due to incompetence.

"The commissioners also agreed to increase the educational allowances by twice as much as our monthly salary," PT DI employees' spokesman Arief said, after meeting with two commissioners.

Arief was one of four employee representatives received by commissioners Ngapuli Sinisuka and Dolly Syarif, during a huge demonstration staged by some 8,000 employees on Friday.

According to Arief, the commissioners also promised to bring the other demands to the upcoming shareholders meeting on June 12 in Jakarta.

Arief refused to identify the name of the director who might be replaced, but unconfirmed reports said that Ilham Habibie would be replaced.

Ilham, the current director of trade at the company, is the eldest son of former president BJ Habibie, who once headed the company, formerly known as Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN).

Ilham, appointed director of trade in 1999, had been the operational director from 1995.

At least 8,000 PT DI employees renewed their strike on Friday after their first strike on Tuesday did not achieve anything.

They demanded, among other things, a higher educational allowance, and eradication of corruption, collusion and nepotism.

In the noisy but non-violent protest, the employees urged that the company also return a total of Rp 35 billion to them.

They said the money, collected from parts of their monthly salaries, had been used to finance the activities of the company employees' housewives' organization (Dharma Wanita).

During President Soeharto's tenure, the company had reportedly used billions of rupiah belonging to the Ministry of Forestry.

The employees also said that the company management had been so incompetent that this, the only aircraft industry in the country, suffered some Rp 200 billion in losses last year.

As in the previous protest, the employees gathered in front of the company's management building.

Some employees took turns to speak, criticizing the management, while the others banged used oil drums.

AN Bone, secretary of the employees' forum (FKK) said the employees were temporarily satisfied with the commissioners' promises.

"Our plan to go to the Ministry of Finance has been canceled," he said.

FKK was sure that the employees would be back at work on Monday, he said. (25/sur)