Teachers complain about dismissal

JAKARTA: Ten representatives of temporarily employed teachers here came to the City Council on Wednesday to complain about the various problems they were facing, including unfair dismissal, low-salaries and other examples of allegedly discriminatory treatment.

Usman Abdali Watik, one of the representatives and a teacher in Senior High School No. 112 in Maruya, West Jakarta, told the council's Commission E, chaired by Warsillah Sutrisno from the National Mandate Party, that his school principal dismissed him for no good reason after he had been working in the same school for seven years.

"I feel that it is unfair that the headmaster fired me by telephone after I had been working there for seven years," said Usman, who received Rp 320,000 per month for teaching 30 hours per week.

Another teacher, Jumali, who worked in Senior Vocational School No. 13 in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, for eight years, also complained about his dismissal.

Jumali said that the management did not tell him about his dismissal. "It was only after I happened to be present at a farewell gathering that actually turned out to be for me that I learned that I had been fired," said Jumali, who received Rp 110,000 per month for teaching 18 hours a week.

According to data supplied by the Forum for Indonesian Temporary Teachers (FGHI), there are some 4,000 temporarily- employed teachers in Jakarta.--JP