Shangri-la dispute continues

JAKARTA: The management of Shangri-la hotel in Jakarta has denied that the International Labor Organization (ILO) had ordered it to reemploy former workers dismissed after a strike last year.

In a hearing with the Committee of Freedom Association, ILO received a recommendation for the reemployment of the workers, but the Employers Group Forum had countered it, according to a statement issued by the hotel management on Saturday.

The hotel says it is open to any effort to settle the dispute and has pledged that it will not use force against the former workers.

On Friday, in a meeting with the hotel management and the former workers, minister of manpower and transmigration called on both parties to settle the case amicably. He said the ILO could not interfere in the case because it was a domestic affair.

In December last year, 580 Shangri-la workers staged a demonstration against the management, which resulted in the dismissal or resignation of almost all of them. When about 80 people insisted on being reemployed, the hotel sued seven of them. The district court last month ordered the seven workers to pay US$2.2 million, or more than Rp 20 billion. --JP