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.