Some expats cry foul over loss of their jobs

Some expats cry foul over loss of their jobs

By Eileen McBride

JAKARTA (JP): Mark Jones returned from his Christmas vacation
two weeks ago to find he had no car.

A director of an international fast food company, he arrived
in Jakarta a year ago on a two-year contract with the local
company.

But last November, Jones (a pseudonym) returned from overseas
meetings to find he had no office.

He now works from home. He has been able to remain in Jakarta
only because his foreign parent company agreed to pick up the
costs of keeping him here.

But he is philosophical about the treatment by the local
subsidiary.

"These are tough times and it was a business decision. I can
understand what has happened even though it is an inconvenience
for me and my family. I can empathize with their situation and I
would do the same if I had been in their position."

With the dramatic tumbling in the value of the rupiah against
the U.S. dollar in the last few months, many companies have had
to cut their dollar-based costs, leading to the sudden
termination of many expatriate employees.

Unlike Jones, the vast majority of cases has the expatriate
suddenly finding himself unemployed and stranded far from home.

In recent months, there has been an unprecedented, massive
exodus of expatriate workers.

Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief has publicly noted the
trend.

When the rupiah was its most volatile two weeks ago, there was
a call by legislators to selectively repatriate foreign workers.

Latief responded that this process would happen automatically
and would not need government intervention.

It is difficult to gauge the exact number of expatriates who
have been directly affected by the currency crisis. But however
many there were a month ago, their ranks have lessened
considerably since the rupiah plummeted to an all-time low of Rp
10,000 to the U.S. dollar.

Crown Pacific moving company reported they had received double
the number of inquiries in the last three months from usual
expectations at this time of year.

Scott Younger from the Institution of Civil Engineers in
Indonesia said the two industries most affected by the currency
crisis were construction and property.

Frustrated

He said literally hundreds of people in the construction
industry alone had been sent home since October.

Unfortunately, hard times have led some companies to abandon
their professional integrity and breach their contractual duties
to their expatriate employees.

Jane Benson (not her real name) and her husband work as
engineers for the same Indonesian construction company. They said
they were frustrated and disillusioned with the firm's attitude
toward them.

They were told last week that their jobs had been terminated.
They are now forced to return to their home country, jobless.

Jane recognized that perhaps they were "in the wrong place at
the wrong time", but she said she was not prepared for the
callous way they had been treated.

With only a week to pack up their offices, they have been
told their employer is not going to honor their contract, which
has a provision for severance pay in lieu of notice.

They have also been ordered to vacate their house by the end
of the week.

This has devastated Jane, whose three children had just
settled into elementary school here. Without pay for the last
month, the family faces not only a prolonged period of
unemployment, but they may soon also be homeless.

"We are still trying to negotiate an agreement to allow us to
stay in the house," Jane said.

"The rent on our house has already been paid. Our employer has
openly admitted this is not a decision based on economics. His
attitude is that the world is not treating him kindly so he won't
treat us kindly."

"We knew there was not much recourse if they decided to break
our contract, but the level of dishonor has been beyond our
expectations."

Like Jane, John Dawson (not his real name) is bitter about the
treatment he received from his local bosses.

He left Indonesia in December to return to England. While he
was paid according to his contract, he said the company still
owed him money.

Having lived the last eight years in Jakarta and worked as the
head of one of the largest property development companies in the
country during that time, Dawson was stunned by the news of his
termination.

Dawson acknowledged it was clearly an economic decision; as
the most senior expatriate he was costing the company the most
money.

But he is now in an invidious position.

"I will be 55 next month. It's very difficult to come back to
the U.K. and find a job. We have children in university and we
have mortgages."

In the chaos resulting from the financial crisis, the local
community has failed to notice the actions of these companies.

Pride

Perhaps, like Muchsin Bafadal of the United Development Party,
the feeling is that qualified locals should be in the jobs that
expatriates currently hold.

But for many years companies have benefited from, and relied
upon, the expertise foreign workers have brought to the market.

"Our company has always exclusively used overseas architects
and engineers, the owner has even prided himself on this, because
expatriates are used to dealing with deadlines and are skilled in
quality control," Jane said.

"They want the international standards and skills we
bring to Indonesian companies, but they do not want to pay for
them."

Dawson said that in the same way the local community was
concerned with the treatment of Indonesians working abroad, it
should understand how expatriates were being treated in their own
country.

"Expatriates are just being told to go, and nobody is asking
the question of whether they are being fairly dealt with."