Workers complain over Idul Fitri allowance
Workers complain over Idul Fitri allowance
JAKARTA (JP): Twenty workers of PT Inasa Wahana Lestari, a steel construction company in Kalideres, West Jakarta, filed a complaint with the City Council yesterday over an unsettled collective labor agreement.
Yesterday, Dole, the spokesman for the workers, told the council's Commission E in charge of welfare, that the management refused to sign the agreement because it included a clause about the provision of allowances.
Dole said that the company did provide annual allowances to its workers, but the management was apparently reluctant to formalize the policy in the agreement.
When the agreement was to be signed on Dec. 10 last year not a single representative of the management was present, he said.
He added that the executives refused to sign the deal because they said they had not yet read it.
Dole said the excuse was impossible to accept because representatives of the workers' union, the West Jakarta chapter of the Ministry of Manpower and executives of the management had held a negotiation session on Dec. 2 to discuss the details of the agreement.
"At that time the executives of the management did not express any objection to the contents of the agreement," he said.
Dole charged that the refusal to formalize the allowance provision was mainly because the company intended to apply its own formula in which the provision of allowances would be replaced with bonuses to be closely linked with the workers' performance.
"Such a scheme is unfair because bonuses will only be given to workers who can finish their tasks according to target set by the company's regulations. Workers will not get any benefit if they cannot fulfill the target," he said.
A member of the commission, Salam Sumangat, said that the members will summon the management to explain the matter.
Meanwhile, 50 workers of PT Duta Busana Danastri, a garment company in Kemandoran, West Jakarta, filed a similar complaint with the National Human Rights Commission yesterday over their firm's failure to give them Idul Fitri allowances as promised.
The workers, led by Siti Nur Rofikoh, met with Baharuddin Lopa, the secretary-general of the commission.
"The company promised earlier to give each worker an allowance amounting to two months' worth of salaries. However, the firm just doesn't want to fulfill the promise. It now says that it cannot afford it," Siti said.
Siti's claim was immediately denied by the management yesterday. "We have never made any promise about the provision of an allowance amounting to two months' pay," Muhammad Thamrin, a lawyer for PT Duta Busana Danastri, said yesterday.
After hearing the complaint, Lopa urged the workers to try to settle the matter with the company by asking the management to pay only one month's salary for the holiday in line with the existing regulations. "You can file a lawsuit against the company if it refuses to do that," Lopa said. (yns)