Sempati staff seek redress

Sempati staff seek redress

JAKARTA (JP): At least 250 laid-off employees of financially
troubled Sempati Air pressed their demand yesterday for severance
pay commensurate with manpower regulations if the private firm
ultimately decides to dismiss them.

They sought mediation with officials of the company controlled
by former president Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo Mandala Putra
at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute office on Jl. Diponegoro,
Central Jakarta.

The employees' lawyer Surya Chandra said his clients demanded
that severance pay should be set at the basic monthly salary
multiplied by years of service and doubled, as regulated by the
Ministry of Manpower Decree No. 3/1996.

"Although the company is badly affected by the economic
crisis, the company should fulfill its obligation to give proper
compensation," Surya of the Legal Aid Institute said.

Sempati Air's human resource manager Isabella Soenarno argued
that the company could only offer compensation amounting to one
month's salary multiplied by the years of service.

"We cannot meet the employees' demand because of the economic
crisis."

She said the company planned to dismiss 1,200 of its current
roster of 1,800 employees.

The company has slashed its services to 31 international and
domestic destinations to just seven domestic destinations, she
said.

"We are now operating only three airplanes of the 26 airplanes
before the economic crisis (that began last July)," she said.

One of the employees, Edon Sibarani, said he and his
colleagues wanted the company to declare bankruptcy if it could
not pay the severance pay required by the manpower decree.

"The company should sell its assets to pay us."

He said the company suspended 700 employees between May and
July last year, and had provided them with compensation according
to the decree.

About 1,300 employees were laid off in March and received 50
percent of their salaries, he said. (jun)