Workers demand annual extra pay
Workers demand annual extra pay
JAKARTA (JP): Over 70 workers from seven companies in Bogor
and Tangerang went to the Ministry of Manpower yesterday to
protest against employer violations of the ministerial decree on
annual extra pay.
The workers, under the coordination of the Social Information
and Legal Guidance Foundation (Sisbikum), a non-governmental
organization, called on the ministry to intervene on their
behalf, claiming that the companies involved had rejected
proposals for a peaceful solution which they had made.
"Only the minister of manpower has the power to force the
management to comply with the labor regulation," said
Khomaruddin, who works for the PT Ever Sintex garment company in
Bogor.
The 70 workers claimed to represent about 1,500 other workers
who, like them, are yet to receive the compulsory extra pay. The
seven companies are PT Ever Sintex, PT Sungil Sejahtera in
Cileungsi, near Bogor, and PT Sinar Ragam, PT Unindo, PT
Trimasakti, PT OHA Kencana and PT Tebing Artanas, all in
Tangerang.
Khomaruddin said the workers at his factory had held
negotiations with the management on two occasions but to no
avail.
Under the regulations an additional one month's wages must be
paid to all workers a week before the major religious holidays,
according to the religion of the workers.
"The management of my company did not even respond to a two-
day strike by workers at the factory on Wednesday and Thursday,"
Khomaruddin said.
Protection
The ministerial decree, issued in September last year,
stipulates that the additional payment must be made at least
seven days prior to religious holidays. Christian workers are to
receive the extra pay a week before Christmas and Moslems a week
before Idul Fitri holidays.
The protesting workers also asked the Minister to protect them
against dismissal by their employers on the ground that they had
taken part in the demonstration.
"We are also asking for a guarantee from the minister that we
won't be fired after this visit to the ministry," said Arief, a
worker from PT Unindo.
Director of Labor Standards Tjepy F. Aloewie said after
meeting with the workers that he had telephoned PT Ever Sintex's
personnel manager, Mulyana, and had asked the company to comply
with the ministerial decree on pay.
Aloewie said many teams had been sent to companies in Jakarta
and surrounding areas to monitor the implementation of the extra-
pay decree. He promised to ask those teams to pay special
attention to the seven companies which employ the protesting
workers, in order to force them to comply with the decree.
Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief is scheduled to make a tour
to several companies in the Jakarta this morning to ensure
compliance with the decree.
Garment
In a related development, four representatives of 176 laborers
from PT Duta Busana Danastri, a garment company, said yesterday
that their employer had failed to honor a promise to make a
holiday payment equivalent to two months' wages prior to the Idul
Fitri festival.
"The company made its promise in the presence of National
Human Rights Commission members on Feb. 9. It promised to pay the
workers an extra amount equivalent to two months' salary prior to
the Idul Fitri festival," said one of the representatives,
requesting anonymity.
The representative said that so far the company had only paid
its employees Rp 101,250 (US$46), which is equivalent to one
month's salary.
"We are aware that the government wages regulation stipulates
that the religious festival allowance must be equivalent to one
month's salary. But a promise is still a promise," She said.
However, a lawyer from Sukardjo Adidjojo Thamrin and partners
law firm, which represents PT Duta Busana Danastri, said that the
company had made no such promise at the meeting between the
company's management, its workers and the rights commission's
representatives.
"I was there at the meeting and I never heard any promise
being made by the company's officials," the lawyer, Achmad, told
The Jakarta Post yesterday in a telephone interview.
The labors went to the National Human Rights Commission for
the second time on Feb. 14 to complain about their employer's
failure to pay them Idul Fitri allowances that had previously
been promised.
The laborers were received by Baharudin Lopa, the commission's
secretary general, who urged the workers to try to settle the
matter with the company by asking the management to pay one
month's salary in line with the government regulation.
The workers' representative said yesterday that a number of
workers now no longer work at the company because the management
had removed certain production equipment as both a disguised form
of dismissal and to enable it to claim that it was incapable of
fulfilling its promise on pay.
"I know it was only a management's ploy to dismiss us without
severance pay. They will say that the company is bankrupt," she
said.
Lawyer Achmad said that the equipment had been removed because
the company did not have as many orders as it used to.
"The removal of the equipment is also the result of frequent
strikes, which have caused the quantity and quality of the
company's products to decline," he said. (rms/mas)