PTDI, workers fail to reach agreement

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.