PT DI agrees to meet demand by employees for more allowances
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)