Roadwork starts despite complaints from locals
Roadwork starts despite complaints from locals
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Tangerang
At least 1,000 workers from PT Starwin Indonesia, a subcontractor
that assembled shoes for international brand Reebok, held a
protest demonstration in front of the Ministry of Manpower and
Transmigration on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta, on Thursday.
They demanded the company to provide severance pay after it
announced it would close down and lay off 3,700 workers.
The protest was the workers' final effort after a failed
tripartite meeting among the company, the labor union and the
Tangerang regency manpower agency on Feb. 24.
"The company has declined to give us severance pay and only
agreed to give us money equal to three month's salary,"
complained Djoko, a supervisor who had worked at the factory for
13 years.
The law on manpower stipulates that dismissed workers deserve
severance pay according to their tenure.
PT Starwin workers union deputy head, Suwondo, asked other
workers to protest the mass dismissals if proper severance pay
was not handed out.
He also demanded Ananta Wahana, one of the company directors
who is also a legislative candidate for the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI-P), to fight for the workers.
"If his election platform is to fight for the common people,
he should have been with us to fight for our rights," Suwondo
said, as quoted by Tempo Interaktif.
The workers were scheduled to meet the company director Chang
Heong, the ministry officials and the All-Indonesia Workers Union
chairman Sidabutar later on Thursday.
In the meeting with Tangerang regency manpower agency last
month, Chang said that the management agreed to pay the workers
unpaid salary in December and January after he sold his company's
assets.
The dispute started when the workers protested against the
management after they were given a bonus equivalent to a month's
salary for Idul Fitri. They complained bitterly about the bonus,
demanding that the company give them 250 percent of the salary
for the Islamic holiday.
The company management eventually agreed to give them a two-
month-salary bonus, but that half of it would be paid in March.
The impatient workers, unhappy with that arrangement too, held a
massive strike between Dec. 23 and Dec. 30.
Three weeks later, the company announced that it would close
down as of February because its buyers had stopped buying after
becoming frustrated with the lack of security and stability in
Indonesia.