Regent hotel employees want their fate decided

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Life for Heri, 35, has become increasingly uncertain. After waiting one year for his job to resume, he has received no assurance that the hotel which he works for will reopen in the near future. Worse still, he does not know if he will be receiving his full salary in the coming months.

Heri and the other 725 employees of the Regent Hotel in Kuningan, South Jakarta, have been in the dark about when the hotel will resume operations after it was closed in early 2002 when a devastating flood inundated part of the building.

Severe flooding badly damaged the hotel's ground floor and basement, and repairs have been very costly. Three power generators and about 100 electric panels were damaged by the flood. However, it was the hotel's ballroom in the basement -- complete with luxury furnishings -- that was the worst hit.

"We are tired of waiting. The hotel's shareholders have to decide quickly whether they will reopen or just shut the hotel down.

"If they do decide to lay us off, then they have to give us a decent severance package," he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

The owner of the hotel, PT Permadani, pledged to reopen the hotel sometime in May, June or August 2002. But until now, there have been no signs that the hotel will resume operations and put its employees back to work.

In fact, some employees believe that the likelihood of the hotel reopening grows smaller with each passing day.

An employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said the hotel management was no longer paying the workers' full salaries since October of last year.

He said that the hotel owner is apparently having financial problems, adding: "The management has not paid us additional pay of Rp 800,000 (US$88). We are only receiving our basic salary and it is often paid late."

He was quick to add that during the early months of the suspension, the hotel management was kind enough to fulfill all their obligations.

"I have calculated that from October 2002 to March 2003, the management owes each worker about Rp 5 million in salaries and bonuses," he said.

Uncertainty about their employment status, he said, had also made it difficult for most of his fellow employees to find other jobs elsewhere.

"Although we no longer work on a regular basis, we are officially on the hotel's payroll.

"This means that we cannot apply for full-time work at other hotels in the city," he said, adding that a number of his colleagues were working part-time as waitresses and motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers.

Iqbal, the chairman of the hotel's labor union, said that all the employees were aware of the fact that the hotel owner was having difficulty in getting compensation from the insurance company for the losses incurred by the flooding.

"We know that they need the compensation to resume operations, but that doesn't mean the owner can disregard what we are going through," he said.

Separately, Fahmi Idris, one of the shareholders, said that reopening the hotel would depend heavily on the amount of compensation awarded by the insurance company.

"We are now in negotiations with the insurance company about the final settlement, and the workers' problems will be dealt with pending the outcome of the negotiations," Fahmi told the Post.

Fahmi, who is a former manpower minister and also a prominent member of the Golkar party, said that the insurance company, PT Ramayana, had so far paid out only US$3.5 million in compensation, far below the US$35 million claimed by the hotel owner.

"We are seeking alternative sources of money so that the hotel can reopen soon."