PTDI set tp rehire workers who passed reselection test

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung, West Java

State-owned aircraft maker PT Dirgantara (PTDI) announced on Friday the results of a reselection test the company had held from Sept. 23 to Oct. 3 in order to rehire employees of good caliber.

Edwin Sudarmo, the president director of PTDI, said 4,957 employees had passed the test, which was executed by human resource consultant PT Perso Data, and only 100 employees failed due to either low intelligence quotient (IQ) or crime-related concerns.

However, Edwin said the company would rehire only 3,400 employees in line with its core business needs, and the remaining employees would be placed with other subsidiaries of PT DI.

"In principle, the company is honoring employees who were willing to take part in the reselection test and rejoin the company," Edwin told a press conference here.

He said the company would immediately rehire those who passed the test and place them in positions befitting their professional qualifications.

The company held the reselection test after initially suspending 9,647 of its more that 12,000 employees in July due to financial problems. It also fired 3,900 workers, some of whom had initially been suspended.

At least 5,057 of the suspended 9,647 employees took part in the reselection test.

Edwin said the company had allocated Rp 130 billion (US$16.25 million) for the disbursement of severance pay to the dismissed employees, who were let go after they failed to register for the reselection test.

However, general secretary of the PTDI's Workers Communication Forum AM Bone said the employees would reject the severance pay, saying it was not enough.

"The severance pay does not comply with a ministerial decree signed by the minister of manpower and transmigration, stipulating that employees be given severance pay equaling two to 13 times the monthly take home pay. We reject the company's decision to give employees only one month take home pay in severance pay," he said.

In response to the statement, PTDI director for general affairs Muhammad Nuril Fuad said the severance pay was in accordance with Law No. 13/2003 on manpower and did not violate any regulations.

Fuad expected the company's decision to fire employees would be backed by a P4B worker tripartite mediation body, which was scheduled to issue a decision shortly. He said he hoped the body would issue the letter before November, explaining that: "The company can only pay the dismissed employees until December this year."