Texmaco workers rally

KARAWANG: About 400 workers who have been dismissed by PT Texmaco Perkasa Engineering staged a demonstration in Karawang, West Java, on Tuesday, demanding that their severance pay be paid in full.

"We reject the doling out of our severance pay in installments over 17 months. We badly need this money now," the workers' spokesman, Achmad Sobari, was quoted by Antara as saying.

Sobari said the workers had been laid off more than a year ago, yet the company had only paid 75 percent of their salaries.

He said the company told the workers that they were being officially dismissed on March 17, and that their severance awards would be paid by installment over 17 months.

The workers, who staged the rally in the morning, dispersed in the afternoon as nobody from management was available to meet them.-Antara