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)