Unemployment threat hangs over everyone

Unemployment threat hangs over everyone

If it could happen to nearly 20 million of us, then the
assumption holds that the ax of redundancy could fall on you.
Losing one's job is now a real and frightening prospect for
nearly all Indonesians. In this week's cover story, The Jakarta
Post team of reporters -- Aloysius Unditu, Johannes K. Simbolon,
Ridwan M. Sijabat, Sri Purwati, Stevie Emilia, IGN Oka Budhi
Yogaswara and Lukman Natanagara -- looks into the issue of
unemployment.

JAKARTA (JP): For millions of people, the writing had long
been on the wall.

Still, when the dreaded pink slips actually arrived, most were
at a loss as to what tomorrow held.

In a protracted economic crisis with no end in sight, a bleak
and daunting future loomed for the majority.

Government statistics show 18 million people are currently out
of work, with the number to increase to 20 million by the end of
the year. Of course, there is the necessary qualifier that
government figures tend to grossly underestimate the actual
number of unemployed.

The process of losing one's job is traumatic even before the
uncertainty of the loss of a regular income sets in.

It can be doubly stressful when fired workers become locked in
long disputes with their employers over what they consider their
entitlements.

Sri Wahyuni left high school in 1989 and went straight into a
job as a flight attendant at Mandala Airlines. She enjoyed the
work because of the extensive travel and the people she met.

All that changed on June 11.

"I didn't suspect anything when I received a letter asking me
to attend a meeting at headquarters," Yuni, as she is known to
her friends, recounted.

It was the end of the line for her and 10 colleagues, but
their battle for adequate severance pay had only just begun.

Yuni recalled that management representatives offered a
straight cash payment, without taking into account the years of
their service.

About 40 laid-off Mandala employees turned to the Jakarta
Legal Aid Institute (LBH) and the Ministry of Manpower for help
to obtain their rightful benefits, including full salary
payments, which had been cut in half since February.

With help from LBH and several public protests, they won their
case eventually.

Complaints

Head of LBH Jakarta's labor division Surya Tjandra said the
institute received about 300 complaints from 7,500 dismissed
workers between August 1997 and August 1998.

"These cases were usually disputes over severance pay," Surya
said, recalling that most companies argued they were unable to
make payments because of the crisis.

Half of all the cases handled by LBH were settled, he added.

Yuni now attends a college in Jakarta, a path also chosen by
some of her fired colleagues. Others have taken up teaching jobs
at kindergartens or started their own businesses.

The less fortunate are still job hunting.

The spirit may be willing, but pounding the pavement and
making the office rounds in search of work can be frustrating.

Job seekers cannot turn to an organized labor exchange system,
providing detailed information on vacancies.

The Ministry of Manpower attempted to run such an exchange
through its branches in each province, but the system broke down
because of lackluster participation from private companies.

Ministry spokesman Sri Harto said a 1981 law requires
companies to inform the Ministry of Manpower of any available
positions and recruitment plans.

The rule was virtually ignored for the last decade as
companies preferred to recruit directly, such as through
advertisements in newspapers.

Sri Harto said that ideally the regulation should be enforced
to allow the ministry to steer the jobless to suitable jobs.

For the growing ranks of the unemployed, enforcement of the
rule could hold one of the few glimmers of hope amid the economic
gloom.