Standard Chartered Bank negotiates with labor union
Standard Chartered Bank negotiates with labor union
JAKARTA (JP): Negotiations are continuing between the All Indonesian Workers Union and the British-based Standard Chartered Bank regarding the number of workers to be dismissed, as a result of bank restructuring, and the amount of severance money to be paid.
Sihotang, who heads the union at Standard Chartered, told The Jakarta Post yesterday that neither of the two issues had been resolved as yet.
"We are still striving to have our demands met," Sihotang said, adding that the specter of a mass dismissal had been present since last November.
Priyo Mulyadi of the bank's trade and finance department said that the dismissal of its employees was, mainly, a result of the company's decision to introduce new technology which, he said, eliminated a number of jobs.
"The new technology reduces the amount of clerical work so that fewer clerks are needed," he said. The bank also plans to remove the duties of the internal control department of Jakarta's branch from here to its Hong Kong branch.
Priyo added that the Hong Kong branch would directly supervise all the internal control departments of the bank's branches in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia.
Standard Chartered operates five branch offices in Indonesia, including one in the Atria Square building in Central Jakarta.
Priyo said that the management had decided that the employees to be dismissed who are not members of the union would each receive 3.7 times the number of years they have worked for the bank multiplied by their last month's salary.
"However, the union is still trying to push the management into giving the employees who are union members at least six times the number of years of their employment multiplied by their last month's salary," he said.
As of yesterday, the bank had not yet revealed the number of employees which it intends to dismiss.
Priyo said he expected that the bank would announce the number to be dismissed, as well as the severance pay it is offering, today.
Another representative of the bank, Ria Jamal, confirmed in a telephone interview with the Post that the negotiations had not yet been concluded. However, she refused to provide any further comment.
"For the time being we have no other comment," she said.
Conflict between the management of the bank and its staff occurred in early 1994, when around 200 of the bank's 350 Jakarta employees went on strike, from Jan. 13 to 14.
The strike was triggered by stalled talks on a collective labor agreement, which was originally scheduled to be signed in October, 1993.
The strikers claimed that the allowances paid by the bank for leave, medical care and their pension funds were lower than those paid by other foreign banks in the city. The protesters' claims were denied by the banks.
During the 1994 strike, the workers also demanded that their expense allowances (tunjangan kemahalan) be maintained in the face of inflation. No report on the result of the strike was available. (mas)