PTDI, workers fail to reach agreement
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The management of state-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI) and its 6,600 dismissed workers have failed to resolve their labor dispute under a bipartite negotiation, and has relegated the final decision to the Central Committee for the Settlement of Labor Dispute (P4P).
The settlement process under the P4p is expected to be lengthy, as the conflicting parties may appeal to the Supreme Court against whatever verdict the committee delivers.
The disputing parties reported the failure of their bipartite negotiation to the committee on Tuesday.
P4P chairman Sabar Sianturi regretted the failure, saying this would not benefit either side because it would only prolong the settlement process.
"It will cost both the management and workers must time to attend hearings at the high court and the Supreme Court under Law No. 22/1957, because the dismissed workers are expected to fight all the way to the Supreme Court," he said.
Johnson Pandjaitan, the workers' legal representative, said his clients also regretted the deadlock and accused the management of lacking the commitment to solving the dispute peacefully in the first place.
"The workers have no other alternative than to bring their case to the Supreme Court," he said.
He said the workers were disappointed with the government for turning a blind eye to the State Administrative Court, which annulled the management's decision, "and so far, neither the management nor the government have taken the initiative to investigate allegations of financial problems and corruption."
The management, with the government's approval, dismissed in December 6,600 of 9,350 workers. The workers were laid off in July after the company found it could no longer repay its debts to local and international creditors.
The government has disbursed US$5 million for severance and service pay to the dismissed workers, who rejected the payments and demanded that they be reemployed.
They said the company's financial problem was not caused by overstaffing, but by a corrupt and inefficient management that had cost the company between Rp 2 trillion and Rp 3 trillion since 1997.
Sabar said that with the failure of bipartite talks, the 15- member P4P, along with labor experts from the Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, would hold a plenary session to take a final decision on the labor dispute.
"Whatever decision they take, it will have an impact on either the management or the dismissed workers, and the law allows either to appeal to the higher courts," he said, adding that the committee had yet to set a date for the plenary session.
The dismissed workers have filed a lawsuit with the P4P and the State Administrative Court against the ailing company's management in response to their mass dismissal. They have also demanded that the government appoint a new board to save the company.
PT DI, formerly known as PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN), was an ambitious project of former president Soeharto. Under then-minister of research and technology B.J. Habibie, the company set a target of producing commercial aircraft by 2015.
Meanwhile, thousands of dismissed workers who arrived on Monday in Jakarta from Bandung, West Java, said they would continue their fight case until the government met their demands.
Several workers said they would accept the dismissal only if the company paid their monthly salaries since last July and provided double the severance and service payments as required by Chapter 164 of Law No. 13/2003.