Workers demand severance pay

Workers demand severance pay

TANGERANG: Hundreds of workers of bag producer PT Tasindo in
Carewet village of Cikupa district and security guard supplier
for Soekarno-Hatta International Airport PT Tri Otomat Pratama
Guard staged separate rallies on Monday, demanding severance pay.

Some 650 workers of PT Tasindo staged a rally at the Tangerang
regency council office in Tigaraksa, asking the council to order
the company to pay their severance pay as regulated in minister
of manpower decree No. 150/2000 on massive dismissals.

"We staged the protest because the company's management will
only pay us the equivalent of one month's salary as severance
pay," Sutoyono, who led the workers, said.

He said the company had dismissed workers, mostly women, after
they had staged a rally demanding the company increase their
monthly wage from Rp 590,000 to Rp 628,000 last month.

"We don't believe the company has gone bankrupt since our
rally last month. It was just an excuse," said another worker,
adding that they had filed three complaints with the regency's
manpower office, but to no avail.

Separately, 350 security officers of PT Tri Otomat Pratama
Guard staged a rally at the Tangerang municipal council office on
Monday over similar demands.

"We've heard that we will be dismissed because the contract
between PT Tri Otomat and PT Angkasa Pura, which manages the
airport, will soon end ... We've also heard that no severance pay
will be paid even though most of us have worked for the company
for three years," M. Sukisno, one of the workers said.--JP